Ad eundem degree

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Honorary degree for honorary alumni

title: "Ad eundem degree" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["academic-degrees"] description: "Honorary degree for honorary alumni" topic_path: "society/education" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_eundem_degree" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Honorary degree for honorary alumni ::

An ad eundem degree is an academic degree awarded by one university or college to an alumnus of another, in a process commonly known as incorporation. The recipient of the ad eundem degree is often a faculty member at the institution which awards the degree, e.g. at the University of Cambridge, where incorporation is expressly limited to a person who "has been admitted to a University office or a Headship or a Fellowship (other than an Honorary Fellowship) of a College, or holds a post in the University Press ... or is a Head-elect or designate of a College".

An ad eundem degree is not an earned degree.{{cite journal|quote=by the last quarter of the nineteenth century most colleges abandoned the ad eundem gradum and substituted only the 'earned' degree|jstor=40223470|journal=AAUP Bulletin |volume= 52|issue= 4 |title=ad eundem gradum|date= December 1966| pages= 433–436 |publisher=American Association of University Professors|author=Martha Wright|doi=10.2307/40223470}}

History

In the later Middle Ages it was common, when a graduate from one university moved into the neighborhood of another, for the new university to admit the graduate as a courtesy, "at the same degree" (in Latin, ad eundem gradum). Thus if someone was a Bachelor of Arts in the university that they had attended, they would likewise be a bachelor of arts of their new university. Not every college extended this courtesy to all other colleges, however.

The practice of incorporation diminished in the early 19th century, but it continues at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Trinity College Dublin.

Australia

At the University of Sydney, members of the academic staff and general staff who do not hold a degree from the university, "and who have completed a minimum of ten years’ service prior to their retirement may be considered by Senate, on their retirement, for admission ad eundem gradum to an appropriate degree of the University."

Ireland

A number of female students at Oxford and Cambridge were awarded ad eundem University of Dublin degrees at Trinity College Dublin, between 1904 and 1907, at a time when their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women and were nicknamed the "steamboat ladies".

Today, graduates of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are eligible to apply for corresponding degrees of Trinity College Dublin, and vice versa, provided that they wish to register for a degree at Trinity College or are members of the academic staff, and pay the required fee.

South Africa

Rhodes University in South Africa uses the term ad eundem gradum to give a student status to undertake a research higher degree based on experience, as opposed to an explicit qualification. In this case the student does not acquire a qualification, but is exempt from an entry requirement.

United Kingdom

At the University of Oxford, incorporation first appeared in the University Statutes in 1516, although the practice itself is older: in the 15th and early 16th centuries, incorporation was granted to members of universities from all over Europe. In 1861, incorporation was restricted to members of Cambridge University and Trinity College, Dublin. In 1908, incorporation was further restricted to specific degrees from these universities. While not an earned degree, both original degree(s) and incorporated ad eundem degree(s) are given in post-nominals listed in the Oxford University Calendar.

After the foundation of the University of Durham in 1832, Durham made attempts to have its degrees recognised in the ad eundem system, introducing the first external examiner system, with all examinations co-marked by an Oxford academic, to assure the other universities that it was maintaining comparable standards. These attempts were rebuffed by the other universities, and eventually abandoned by Durham. Still, Durham granted graduates from other universities degrees ad eundem until the practice was abolished by the adoption of new university statutes in 1909.

United States

Original use

In the United States, the ad eundem Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts as a regularly awarded academic qualification from graduates of other colleges and universities generally dates from the colonial period, and was awarded at the institutions listed below. ::data[format=table title=""]

InstitutionFirst DocumentedMost Recently Documented
Harvard UniversityCommon in the 1700s. Ad eundem degrees were not specifically recorded as such at Harvard until the period after 1750.url=https://archive.org/details/sim_harvard-library-bulletin_autumn-1958_12_3/page/326/mode/2up?view=theater
Yale Universitydate=2015-09-25title=Miscellaneous Regulations
Columbia University17581774
Princeton University17631884
University of Pennsylvania
Williams College1795
::

Contemporary use

Five US universities follow a tradition that only alumni may hold certain faculty positions, and in limited cases preserve the tradition of the ad eundem Master of Arts to the present day, with the specific circumstances described below. ::data[format=table title=""]

InstitutionMA awarded upon promotion toFirst documentedMost recent
Amherst CollegeProfessor1916title=Convocation Events & Calendars Amherst College
Brown UniversityAssociate Professor1945title=Full Commencement Program 2024
Harvard UniversityAssociate Professortitle=University Has Broadened Idea of Honorary Degrees News The Harvard Crimsonurl=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1959/6/8/university-has-broadened-idea-of-honorary/
Wesleyan UniversityProfessor18942021
Yale UniversityProfessordate=2024-03-06title=New Yale faculty receive honorary Master of Arts degrees
::

Upon being awarded tenure

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Brown_-_Ad_Eundem_Gradum.jpg" caption="''Ad eundem gradum'' Master of Arts degree awarded by Brown University in 2014."] ::

At Brown and Harvard the degrees are awarded to those faculty who are granted tenure and the rank of associate professor, usually after approximately eight years of service to the university as an assistant professor or for a shorter amount of time for a professor with prior service at another university. Because these degrees do not involve any further study, many faculty members do not list them on their curricula vitae, although some, such as Francesca Gino, choose to do so given the exclusivity of the degree.

At Harvard the degree is described as given ut in grege nostro numeretur ("so that (s)he may be numbered in our flock"). During the 1950s, it was noted that the degree were "not announced at Commencement, or included in the printed list of honorary degrees circulated at that time, nor is there any 'citation.'" Instead, the President of Harvard would present "the diploma at the first meeting of the faculty following the recipient's appointment to permanent rank."

At Brown, the degrees have been awarded as a part of the annual May commencement ceremony.

Upon being promoted to full professor

At Amherst, Wesleyan, and Yale, the degrees are conferred upon those who rise to the rank of full professor. Yale refers to this degree as the MA Privatim. During the 150th anniversary of Princeton University, in 1896, 16 full professors were awarded the MA Privatim.

At Amherst, in recent years, the degrees are awarded during first-year student convocation in August, at Yale it is an "elegant, brief ceremony, usual in February or March", and at Wesleyan as part of commencement in May.

Amherst College grants this degree to college faculty despite the fact that it grants only bachelor's degrees to its matriculated students. However, those professors who already earned a bachelor's degree at Amherst or Wesleyan by attending as an undergraduate are not presented with a second degree. In 2024, Amherst College President Michael A. Elliott called this additional rule a "custom, some might say a strange custom."

Posthumous awards

In April 2023, the President of Yale, Peter Salovey, awarded M.A. Privatim degrees posthumously to Reverend James W. C. Pennington and Reverend Alexander Crummell, the first two black students at Yale, both of whom faced numerous incidents of discrimination and left Yale without earning degrees.

References

References

  1. Ordinances of the University of Cambridge, Chapter II, [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2016/chapter02-section8.html Section 8. Incorporation].
  2. "''ad eundem''". [[Merriam-Webster]].
  3. University of Oxford, [https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/regulations/307-072.shtml Council Regulations 22 of 2002] {{Webarchive. link. (2016-07-27, sec. 1.7-1.18.)
  4. [https://www.tcd.ie/registrar/assets/documents/statutes/statutes/2010-statutes-030316-updated-1.80MB.pdf The 2010 Consolidated Statutes of Trinity College Dublin and of the University of Dublin] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-02-13, Division - University, sec. 3.(4)(a), p. 157.)
  5. [http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2011/55&RendNum=0 Degrees conferred ''ad eundem gradum''], The University of Sydney, 2007
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  10. "University of Oxford charter for Incorporation of Cambridge and Dublin".
  11. [http://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/documents/research/higherdegreesguide.pdf Higher Degrees Guide] {{webarchive. link. (October 10, 2012, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 2010)
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  18. (Autumn 1958). "Harvard Library Bulletin Autumn 1958: Vol 12 Iss 3". Harvard University Library.
  19. (2015-09-25). "Miscellaneous Regulations".
  20. King's College (New York, N. Y.). "The matricula or Register of admissions & graduations, & of officers employed in King's College at New York".
  21. King's College (New York, N. Y.). "The matricula or Register of admissions & graduations, & of officers employed in King's College at New-York".
  22. alumni, Pennsylvania univ, soc of the. (1880). "Catalogue of the trustees officers and graduates of the departments of arts and science and of the honorary graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, 1749-1880".
  23. SELDEN, WILLIAM K.. (1990). ""Honoris Causa" Honorary Degrees at Princeton University, 1748 – 1987". The Princeton University Library Chronicle.
  24. "History of Penn Alumni Catalogues".
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  26. (July–August 2010). "The "private" Yale degree". [[Yale Alumni Magazine]].
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  35. "Morning Exercises".
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  45. (Autumn 1958). "Harvard Library Bulletin Autumn 1958: Vol 12 Iss 3". Harvard University Library.
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  47. (2023-06-01). "Brown to confer 2,921 degrees at 255th Commencement".
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  52. Selden, William K.. (1990). ""Honoris Causa" Honorary Degrees at Princeton University, 1748 – 1987". The Princeton University Library Chronicle.
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  56. (31 August 2022). "Convocation 2022 - Amherst College".
  57. "4 Faculty Honored with MA Ad Eundem Gradum Degrees".
  58. "Amherst College".
  59. (2023-04-22). "Honoring the Rev. James W. C. Pennington and the Rev. Alexander Crummell".
  60. Staff, TheGrio. (2023-04-27). "Black men who suffered racial injustice at Yale finally get degrees".

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