This is due to factors such as the student's ability, motivation, and access to financial assistance to earn the degree.

Just like other baccalaureate degrees, a Bachelor of Arts is historically offered only at public and private universities and colleges.

It influenced universities to begin focusing on broad topics such as algebra, psychology, biology, art, history, and philosophy.

[6][7] Liberal art is a term that was applied to the study of many branches of learning such as grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

In Japan and the United States, Bachelor of Arts degrees were historically given only by public or private institutions and colleges.

Universitäten place greater emphasis on fundamental science and background in theory, while Fachhochschulen are generally designed with a focus on teaching professional skills.

However, some older or ancient universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Trinity College Dublin traditionally award BAs to undergraduates having completed the final examinations, e.g., Part II Tripos (Cambridge), Final Honour Schools (Oxford), Moderator-ship (Dublin), in most subjects including the sciences.

At Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin the degree of MA can be claimed, usually twenty-one terms after matriculation, without any further study.

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 of the International Baccalaureate) come from this: le Baccalauréat and el Bachillerato, respectively.

An ordinary, pass or unclassified degree (which does not give the graduate the right to add '(Hons)') may be awarded if a student has completed (i) followed a non-honours program, or (b) attempted an honours course but marginally failed to achieve third-class standard.

[citation needed] In colleges and universities in Australia, Nepal, New Zealand, India and South Africa, the BA degree can be taken over three years of full-time study.

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.