Associate Degrees Online

What is an Associate Degree?

Associate degrees are issued by institutions of higher education and consists of a certain amount of credits that a student earns.
Associate degree programs are designed for one of two objectives, either to prepare for an occupation, or to provide a foundation for a baccalaureate degree program.

Associate Degree Standards
Associate degrees should provide evidence of competencies in communications, social sciences, humanities and fine arts, analytical and inferential reasoning, and computational skills, as well as the ability to learn on your own.

General Education
General education should be an integral part of all associate degree programs in order to develop characteristics that help define an educated person. The liberal arts and sciences

• Communication,
• Natural Sciences/Mathematics,
• Humanities, and
• Social Science

are a fundamental component of all collegiate degrees. Granting a degree implies that the student has achieved general education experiences in addition to technical preparation that may be part of a program. There are standards regarding the minimum number of general education credits required outside of technical portions of a program for each type of associate degree. In accordance with commonly held standards Colleges, Universities, Distance Learning and Trade Schools agree that the general education portion of the associate degree program should be acceptable toward baccalaureate degrees.

Minimum Standards
All associate degrees should require the equivalent of at least two years of full-time study built around a defined body of knowledge. Because full-time enrollment is becoming less common, the minimum standards have been expressed here in terms of credits. Programs that do not measure academic progress by credits will need to demonstrate through equivalent measures that these standards are met.

In accordance with commonly held standards, the minimum requirement for an associate degree is 60 semester or 90 quarter credits. It is understood that institutions may use other terms (e.g., hours, courses) to express equivalent student accomplishment.