In Argentina, tertiary colleges ("institutos terciarios") offer associate degrees in a variety of areas, including elementary and high school teacher, and technical fields, upon completion of three or four years of study.
Brazil follows the major traits of the continental European system; free public schools are available from kindergarten up to postgraduate degrees, both as a right established in Article 6, caput of the Brazilian Constitution and as a duty of the State in Article 208, Items I, IV, and V, of the Brazilian Constitution.
[3] There is also official recognition for a type of course called sequencial ('sequential' - students receive this associate degree like in junior college.
[9] The territories have fewer but similar diploma programs, some being particularly geared to Arctic environments, and northern Indigenous cultures and languages, with bachelor's programs being a mix of local provision, partnerships with institutions based elsewhere in Canada and international consortia.
In Quebec, the Diplôme d'études collégiales (diploma of college studies), taught at post-secondary collèges d'enseignement général et professionnel (colleges of general and professional education; cégeps) can be a two-year pre-university qualification that is a pre-requisite for entry into the bachelor's degree.
[10] In the United States, associate degrees are awarded after completion of sixty semester or ninety quarter college credits.
Generally, one year of study is focused on college level general education in disciplines such as Communications, English, History, Mathematics, Natural Science, and Social Science, and the second year is focused on the area of a student's major.
Eells concludes that it is "not unlikely" that people at Chicago knew of the associate degrees being awarded in the United Kingdom, but there is no direct evidence of this.
They are offered by regional organisations such as the Caribbean Examinations Council[19] and the University of the West Indies,[20] and at institutions of higher education in particular, within The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados,[21] Jamaica,[22] and St. Kitts and Nevis,[23] among others.
Yet as the general population spends an increasing amount of time studying, they are no longer as attractive to students who wish to distinguish themselves.
[29] In 2021, the Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie (DUT) was reframed as an intermediate degree part of a three-year curriculum now referred to as BUT.
[30] Prior to the reform of 2006, universities awarded a two-year diploma called DEUG, the purpose of which was also to help the student pursue studies in a field that differed from what was initially intended.
Aside from the Brevet de Technicien Supérieur (BTS) which remains relevant in many fields for which long academic studies are not deemed crucial[31] and for which young professionals are in demand, degrees comparable to an associate degree are gradually being phased out, although their legitimacy remains in theory (but not always in practice[32]) unchanged for those who were awarded one in the past.
[34] A two-year education on BA-level is called Høgskolekandidat, translated "university college graduate".
[36][37] It required (in 1884) passes in three of mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology, and allowed students to go on to take the examination for the Bachelor of Science.
However, it was an examination for "those who are not members of the university" and who were under the age of 18; as such it was at the level of a high school qualification rather than a modern associate degree.
[43] In Hong Kong, associate degrees were first introduced in 2000 with the aim of increasing the number of students with post-secondary qualifications.
This transition aligns with HEC's Undergraduate Education Policy, which mandates that all ADPs must receive approval from the relevant statutory bodies of the respective universities.