Bachelor's Degree

The bachelor’s degree (baccalaureate) is usually the first academic title or rank conferred on a student by the university for satisfactory completion of a prescribed four-year course of study, and it is authenticated by a diploma signifying the achievement. Its purpose is to enable a student to acquire a certain amount of liberal learning and to become proficient in a particular branch of learning.

The degree requires a minimum of 120 semester credit hours of coursework; bachelor’s degree programs should not exceed 126 semester credit hours unless it can be shown that the additional coursework is required to meet professional accreditation or licensing requirements.

The curriculum structure of the bachelor’s degree at Kent State University is the following:

1. Concentrations must include a minimum of 50 percent of the curriculum within the major, see 23 for more information.
2. The major must include an upper-division, writing-intensive course (WIC). Although students must complete a WIC with a minimum C grade to earn a bachelor’s degree (as a university requirement), the major course designated as WIC does not need to be specified with a minimum C grade as a graduation requirement for that particular major.
3. Diversity-designated courses are not required to be specified in a program’s curriculum. Students complete the diversity requirement by selecting one course from the Kent Core and one course from the Kent Core, a declared program, an elective or a semester of study abroad (the latter with dean’s approval).
4. The experiential learning requirement (ELR) may be a major or elective course, a component of a course or a non-credit paid or unpaid experience (e.g., internship). An ELR-designated course is not required to be specified in a program’s curriculum.

Within this structure, the content of programs determines the type of bachelor’s degree:

Majors within the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree usually are aimed at liberal learning; they tend to teach qualitative methods of scholarship, and they ordinarily have a small major and a relatively large number of electives, which makes the degree flexible.

Majors within the Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree generally are oriented toward more specialized preparation; they tend to teach quantitative methods of scholarship, and they usually have a large number of major requirements, which somewhat limit the flexibility of the degree.

The Bachelor of Integrative Studies (B.I.S.) degree permits students to construct their own areas of focus within structured limits.

The Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies (B.T.A.S.) is an adult-completion degree designed to accommodate varied educational backgrounds.

Professional bachelor’s degrees tend to have a greater percentage of required courses in the content of the discipline as they prepare graduates for a specific profession. These programs usually require a core of professional studies that conforms to the standards of an accrediting agency or other professional/ licensing body. The size of the professional core ordinarily restricts the number of hours that are available outside the associated major.

Kent State University offers 10 professional or technical undergraduate degrees:

• Bachelor of Applied Horticulture (B.A.H.)
• Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.)
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.)
• Bachelor of Music (B.M.)
• Bachelor of Radiologic and Imaging Sciences Technology (B.R.I.T.)
• Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.E.)
• Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (B.S.I.T.)
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.)
• Bachelor of Science in Public Health (B.S.P.H.)
• Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.)

“2+2” Bachelor’s Degree Programs: Several baccalaureate programs at Kent State University can be completed with approximately two years of additional full-time study after completion of an associate degree. An example is the Bachelor of Science degree in Respiratory Care, which is a two-year program for students who hold an accredited associate degree in respiratory therapy/care and are registered respiratory therapists.