Bachelor of Divinity

In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity/Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDIV) is an undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. In most modern universities, the BD as a first degree is essentially equivalent to a Bachelor of Arts degree with a speciality in divinity. Relatively few institutions award undergraduate Bachelor of Divinity degrees today, and the distinction between institutions which do award such degrees and those which award B.A. degrees for theological subjects is usually one of university bureaucracy, rather than curriculum.

In the Catholic Universities the Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB) is often called the Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD) and is treated as a postgraduate qualification.

United Kingdom

At the Universities of Cambridge and Dublin and previously at the University of Oxford, the BD is a postgraduate qualification, and applicants must have already completed an undergraduate degree before being accepted into the course; the same was formerly true at the University of Oxford, where the degree ceased to be offered in 2005. Registration for Cambridge's BD is only open to senior graduates of that University.