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A certificate or diploma evidencing the granting of a bachelor's degree

A Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA, A.B., or AB), from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a Bachelor's Degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts degree programs generally take three to four years depending on the country, academic institution, and specific majors or minors.

Diplomas generally give the name of the institution, signatures of officials of the institution (generally the president or rector of the university as well as the secretary or dean of the component college), the type of degree conferred, the conferring authority and the location at which the degree is conferred. Degree diplomas generally are printed on high quality paper or parchment; Individual institutions set the preferred abbreviation for their degrees.^[1]

Regional differences[link]

The Bachelor of Arts degree is usually attained in four years in Lebanon, Armenia, Greece, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Brazil and the rest of Latin America, Canada, Egypt, Iran, Japan, Nigeria, Serbia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the Russian Federation, Scotland, South Korea, Iraq, Tunisia, Kuwait, Turkey, and the United States.^[2][3]

In contrast, the Bachelor of Arts degree course generally lasts three years in nearly all of the European Union countries. It also takes three years in Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, India, Israel, New Zealand, Iceland, Norway, Singapore, the Caribbean, South Africa, Switzerland, and the Canadian province of Quebec.

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa[link]

In universities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, the B.A. degree can be taken over three years of full-time study.^[4] Students must pursue at least one major area of study, and that subject is studied in all of the three years. At some universities students may choose to pursue a second major; alternatively, the remainder of the degree is taken up with a minor area of study (in the first two years) and other individual or stream-based subjects make up the degree. Unlike in other countries, students do not receive an overall grade for their Bachelor of Arts degree with varying levels of honours. Instead, students have the option, after their third year of study and provided they have achieved a minimum average grade in their major area, of a further one year honours course. Thus, to achieve an honours degree, an extra "postgraduate" year must be completed; see Bachelor's degree: Honours Degrees and academic distinctions.

Canadian colleges and universities typically offer a 4 year B.A. and an honours designation can be earned through specified course work, a high grade average, and possibly the completion of a thesis or dissertation. On graduation, students are permitted to append the post-nominal letters "B.A." to their name and those who have successfully completed the honours year may style themselves "B.A. (Hons.)", depending on the style of the granting university. For further clarification, the H.B.A. is not an actual degree, but the name of a program and a stylized version of the Bachelor of Arts that is received upon successful completion of the Richard Ivey School of Business.

In general, in all four countries, the B.A. (Hons.) degree is the basic qualification required to pursue higher degrees by research, including the M.A. and Ph.D degrees. In Canada, a B.A. with a high grade average is also sufficient for graduate studies and the B.A. degree is typically accepted for entry into professional programs such as law or an M.B.A. program.

Netherlands / Europe[link]

In the Netherlands, the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees were introduced in 2002. Until then there was a single program which led to the doctorandus degree. This comprised the same course load as the Bachelor and Master programs combined. (The title doctorandus was used in almost all fields of study; other titles were used for legal studies (meester) and engineering (ingenieur).) Those who had already started the doctorandus program could, on completing it, opt for the doctorandus degree (entitling them to use "Drs." in front of their name), or could use the Master’s degree (post-nominal letters) in accordance with the new standard. A similar practice has been introduced in other EU countries, according to the Bologna Process.

Germany[link]

In Germany you can find two kinds of universities: Universitäten and Fachhochschulen (which are also called University of Applied Sciences). Universitäten and Fachhochschulen – both as well called Hochschulen - are legally equal, but Fachhochschulen have the reputation to be more related to practice, due to professional studies whose program is from a prioritization of the needs by a representative group of industrialists. Whereas education at Universitäten is more focussed on fundamental science and theoretical background, which is due to a more sophisticated research background.
In Germany the B.A. normally lasts between 3 and 3 ½ years – 6 or 7 semester - and between 180 and 210 ECTS must be earned.

United Kingdom and Ireland[link]

In the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland) and Republic of Ireland, the first degree course normally lasts 3 years, but nomenclature varies: 19th-century and later universities usually distinguish between arts and sciences subjects by awarding either a B.A. or B.Sc. degree. However, some older or ancient universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge^{[citation needed]} and Dublin traditionally award B.A.s to undergraduates having completed the final examinations, e.g. Part II Tripos (Cambridge), Final Honour Schools (Oxford), Moderatorship (Dublin), in most subjects including the sciences. Some new plate glass universities established in the 1960s, such as York and Lancaster originally followed the practice of Oxford and Cambridge by awarding B.A.s in all subjects, but have since changed to awarding B.Sc. degrees in science subjects. At Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin the degree of M.A. can be claimed for a nominal administrative fee, usually 21 terms after matriculation. For many centuries, the bachelor's degree was an intermediate step and was awarded for much of the work carried out in later times at secondary schools. The names of the final secondary school exams in France and Spain (and increasingly in Britain - the International Baccalaureate) come from this: le Baccalauréat and el Bachillerato, respectively.

Scottish Universities award a Master of Arts degree to humanities or arts graduates, but a B.Sc. to science graduates. This course takes 4 years for an honours degree and three for an ordinary (in Scotland it is possible to opt to take an ordinary degree rather than this simply ranking below a third class honours).

A Bachelor of Arts is entitled to the designation B.A. for an ordinary/pass degree and B.A. (Hons.) for an honours degree (but the latter is often abbreviated to simply B.A.).

United States[link]

In the United States, the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Artium Baccalaureus (A.B.) is one of two basic undergraduate degrees. The other is the Bachelor of Science. At most institutions, the B.A. and B.S. have all but identical requirements of 120 semester hours or 180 quarter hours for a basic undergraduate degree. Curricula leading to the B.A., however, often require a certain minimum number of the total degree credits be drawn from coursework in topical areas historically associated with the liberal arts - such as language, literature, humanities, mathematics, history, physical sciences, and social sciences. At Eastern Michigan University, for example, 75 of the minimum 124 credits must be earned in these subject areas - whatever the student may choose as a major or minor subject - including one year of study over two consecutive semesters of one foreign language.

See also[link]

• Associate of Arts
• Lady Literate in Arts
• Bachelor of Fine Arts
• Bachelor of Science
• Educational attainment in the United States

References[link]

Chen Show Mao
Member of Parliament for Paya Lebar Division, Aljunied GRC
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2011
Preceded by	Cynthia Phua
Personal details
Born	Taiwan
Nationality	Singaporean
Political party	Workers' Party of Singapore
Alma mater	Harvard University, Oxford University, Stanford University
Occupation	former partner of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Religion	Chinese folk religion[1]

Chen Show Mao (simplified Chinese: 陈硕茂; traditional Chinese: 陳碩茂; pinyin: Chén Shuòmào; born 6 February 1961) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer. He is a member of the opposition Workers' Party, and has been a Member of Parliament for the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency since 7 May 2011. He represents the Paya Lebar ward, replacing PAP's Cynthia Phua.^[2]

Personal profile[link]

Chen was born in Taiwan and moved to Singapore at the age of 11. He studied at Nanyang Primary School, Catholic High School and the Anglo-Chinese School.^[3] Chen was the president of the students' council at National Junior College and graduated as the top student in Singapore for the 1979 "A" level examinations,^[4] scoring straight As in Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics B, as well as A1s for General Paper and Chinese.

Although Chen had yet to become a Singapore Citizen, he chose to serve National Service. During National Service, Chen served as an infantry platoon commander at the Fifth Singapore Infantry Regiment (5SIR) and as Brigade Adjutant, or DYS1, at the headquarters of the Third Singapore Infantry Brigade (3SIB).^[5] He took up citizenship in 1986, six years after serving National Service.^[6]

Despite graduating as the top student for the 1979 "A" level examinations, Chen did not gain admission into the local medical school.^[7] Thereupon, he pursued his undergraduate studies with major in Economics at Harvard University. Chen graduated from Harvard University in 1986 and from Corpus Christi College, Oxford University in 1988, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.^[8] In 1992 Chen received his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School and in 2005 received his M.A. from Corpus Christi College, Oxford University.^[9]

Legal career[link]

Chen is a partner in the Corporate department of Davis Polk & Wardwell and a managing partner of the Beijing office. An experienced lawyer, he has practiced in the New York office since 1992, the Hong Kong office since 1999 and the Beijing office since 2007.

Chen advised the Agricultural Bank of China on its recent US$22 billion initial public offering (IPO), which was the second largest IPO in history.^{[citation needed]} He also advised the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) on its US$21 billion IPO, as well as China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) on its proposed US$19 billion acquisition of Unocal. Chen also completed the global IPOs of Air China, China Construction Bank, China Unicom, Metallurgical Corp. of China, Sinopec, as well as offerings by the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).^{[citation needed]}

Besides China, Chen has completed international securities offerings and M&A transactions by various companies including Acer, ASE, Asus, AU Optronics, BHP, Foxconn, Freeport-McMoran, HTC, TSMC and UMC. He also worked with financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China (ROC).^{[citation needed]}

Beyond that, Chen has worked with sovereign wealth funds such as The China Investment Corporation (CIC), the Development Fund of the ROC and also advised the Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan Stock Exchanges on proposed regulations. Chen was named one of American Lawyer’s 2010 "Dealmakers of the Year" in April 2011.^[10]

On 1 July 2011, Chen announced on his Facebook page that he had retired from active practice as partner of his law firm given his new responsibilities as an MP. The decision was made so that he can spend more time with his family, to better serve his constituency and country, and that he would be exploring alternative work arrangements.^[11]

Political career[link]

During his time abroad, Chen regularly returned home to Singapore to visit his parents, his sister and her family.^[12] In 2007, he visited the headquarters of the Workers’ Party of Singapore, and found, over a period of time, a meeting of minds on their shared goals for Singapore's future. Subsequently, he became a member of the Workers’ Party of Singapore.^[6] Upon his entry into Singapore politics, he was referred to as the Workers' Party "star catch" by the local press. This was mainly because Singapore's opposition parties had previously struggled to recruit top-calibre candidates with profiles comparable to Chen.

Chen stated that he joined the Workers' Party because he believed that "the best way to ensure good governance for Singapore is through the growth of a competitive opposition that offers a credible alternative to the party in government".^[13] During an interview, Chen frankly explained why he decided to join the Workers' Party of Singapore^[14]

On 27 April 2011, Chen submitted his candidacy for the five-member Aljunied Group Representation Constituency with the Workers' Party of Singapore Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, Chairman Sylvia Lim, Pritam Singh, a postgraduate law student, and Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap, a freelance counsellor. The incumbent team included two cabinet ministers and one Senior Minister of State, and was helmed by the prominent Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Yeo.^[15]

During the intense nine-day campaign period that followed, Chen was singled out by leaders of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) for criticism. The PAP's Organising Secretary and Minister for Education, Dr Ng Eng Hen, questioned Chen's motives for entering politics in a letter to The Straits Times. Ng also questioned whether Chen would be able to relate to the aspirations of Singaporeans after having spent most of his career in the United States and China.^[16] The PAP's co-founder and former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew also suggested that Chen could return to China after losing in the election.

Throughout the campaign, Chen kept a low profile when the WP was faced with tough questions, instead allowing frontman Low Thia Khiang to take the heat. He displayed his affinity with regular Singaporean culture and Singaporeans by addressing crowds at rallies with smatterings of Malay and Hokkien to dispel the notion that he was a "foreigner", as he had spent many years abroad. He also highlighted at a Workers' Party rally that he came to Singapore at a young age with his parents and sister, that he served National Service, and that he owns an apartment in Bishan and frequently commutes by MRT train.

On 7 May 2011, Chen and his Workers' Party team won the Aljunied GRC with 54.71% of the total votes cast, with Yeo's PAP team obtaining 45.29% of the votes. The victory was considered historic because it was the first time that a GRC seat had been captured by an opposition party, and the first time that two cabinet ministers had lost their seats in a general election. Chen became the first foreign-born opposition MP in the history of Singapore, while his teammates Sylvia Lim and Muhamad Faisal Manap became the first female opposition MP and the first Malay opposition MP.^[17] Also, together with Pritam Singh and Muhamad Faisal bin Abdul Manap, he became one of the first three opposition MPs to be elected into parliament at the first attempt.

Committee of Selection[link]

On 15 October 2011, it was announced that Chen was nominated to sit on the Committee of Selection, making him the first non-People's Action Party MP to be named to this committee.^[18]

Current posts[link]

• Member, Committee of Selection
• Council Member, Workers' Party of Singapore
• Advisor, Aljunied Constituency Committee (AJCC)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile at Workers' Party of Singapore website

Offices[link]