A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas. In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges (e.g., "college of arts and sciences") or schools (e.g., "school of business"), but may also mix terminology (e.g., Harvard University has a "faculty of arts and sciences" but a "law school").
Overview
The medieval University of Bologna, which served as a model for most of the later medieval universities in Europe, had four faculties: the Faculties of Theology, Law, Medicine, and finally the Faculty of Arts, from which every student had to graduate in order to continue his training in one of the other three, sometimes known as the higher faculties. The privilege to establish these four faculties was usually part of all medieval charters for universities, but not every university could do so in practice.
The Faculty of Arts took its name from the seven liberal arts: the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy). In German, Scandinavian, Slavic and other universities, the name for this faculty would more often literally translate as 'faculty of philosophy'. The degree of Magister Artium (Master of Arts) derives its name from the Faculty of Arts, while the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) originates within German education and derives its name from the German name of the Arts faculty.
The number of faculties has usually multiplied in modern universities, both through subdivisions of the traditional four faculties, and through the absorption of academic disciplines which have developed within originally vocational schools, in areas such as engineering or agriculture.
Faculty of Art
A Faculty of Arts is a university division specializing in teaching in areas traditionally classified as "arts" for academic purposes, generally including creative arts, writing, philosophy, and humanities. It was one of the four traditional divisions of the teaching bodies of medieval universities, the others being Law, Medicine and Theology. The Faculty of Arts was the lowest in rank, but also the largest as students had to graduate there to be admitted to one of the higher faculties.
Course of study
University studies took six years for a Master of Arts degree (a Bachelor of Arts degree could be awarded along the way). The studies for this were organized by the faculty of arts, where the Seven Liberal Arts were taught: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These were divided into the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy). All instruction was given in Latin and students were expected to be able to converse in that language. The trivium comprised the three subjects that were taught first: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These three subjects were the most important of the seven liberal arts for medieval students. The curriculum came also to include the three Aristotelian philosophies: physics, metaphysics and moral philosophy.
In the universities of continental Europe, this faculty has more often been named the equivalent of "Faculty of Philosophy" (e.g., Norwegian: Det filosofiske fakultet, Slovene: Filozofska fakulteta). Nowadays this is a common name for the faculties teaching humanities.
Faculty of Commerce
Faculty of Commerce may refer to the following faculties;
- Faculty of Commerce: Banaras Hindu University
- Faculty of Commerce: University of Wollongong
- Faculty of Commerce, Social Welfare & Business Management: University of Calcutta
- Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy: Thammasat University
Faculty of Economics
Faculty of Economics (Ekonomski fakultet in most South Slavic languages) may refer to:
- MSU Faculty of Economics, located in Moscow, Russia
- University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics, located in Belgrade, Serbia
- University of Montenegro Faculty of Economics, located in Podgorica, Montenegro
- Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, located in Zagreb, Croatia
- University of Osijek Faculty of Economics, located in Osijek, Croatia
- School of Economics and Business Sarajevo, located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- University of Kragujevac Faculty of Economics, located in Kragujevac, Serbia
Faculty of Education
Faculty of Education may refer to:
- Faculty of Education, Banaras Hindu University
- Faculty of Education, McGill University
- Faculty of Education, Queen's University
- Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
- Faculty of Education, University of Colombo
- Faculty of Education, University of London
- Faculty of Education, University of Osijek
- Faculty of Education, University of Strathclyde
- Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario
- Faculty of Education, University of Zagreb
- Faculty of Education, Victoria University of Wellington
Other faculties
- Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney
- Faculty of Education, Law and Social Sciences (Birmingham City University)
Faculty of Humanities
A Faculty of Humanities is a university faculty teaching humanities.
Examples include:
- Faculty of Humanities, University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- McMaster Faculty of Humanities, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
- AAU Faculty of Humanities, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
- University of Copenhagen Faculty of Humanities, Denmark
- University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities, England
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University Faculty of Humanities
- Faculty of Humanities (University of Oslo), Norway
- University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Humanities, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand
Faculty of Law
Examples include:
Others
- Department of Law, University of Turin
- Faculty of Civil Law, University of Santo Tomas
- Faculty of Education, Law and Social Sciences (Birmingham City University)
- Faculty of International Law, CUPL
- Faculty of Law and Administration, Jagiellonian University
- Faculty of Law and Public Administration, University of Szeged
- Faculty of Law Review, University of Toronto
Faculty of Music
In English-speaking academia Faculty of Music normally refers to a university department, especially at Oxford and Cambridge (UK). In the USA, the use of 'faculty' often relates to academic and teaching staff.
Faculty of Natural Sciences
- Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences, England
- Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Slokavia
- Vilnius University Faculty of Natural Sciences, Lithuania
Faculty of Philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy may refer to:
- Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
- Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford
- Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
- Faculty of Philosophy, University of Montenegro
- Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš
Faculty of Political Science
- Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia
- MSU Faculty of Political Science, Moscow State University, Russia
- Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University, Turkey
- Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Montenegro
- Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University
- Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University