I wouldn't hesitate to apply for a job if I earned or nearly completed my "4 year" BA degree. I also agree with the notion that HR really doesn't have a clue
.
Who wrote the ad? An HR worker or someone from the department? My guess is HR.
Here is an example- my background is in food/restaurant. I teach in that field. WHEN I earned my associate degree in culinary arts, it was from one of only 3 colleges offering such. There were a lot of years when I had a "terminal degree" in my field. Then, there was a boom of community colleges who started offering ASA degrees in culinary, and so not to be outdone, culinary schools (around 2004) started offering bachelor degrees. Last year, when I counted, there were less than 20. (most were not accredited by the AFC, our industry's gold standard- usually in my field, a BS would be less accepted than a Bachelor Professional Studies, which would likely be AFC accredited). One master chef (of which there are only +/- 80 in the world) helped launch a Masters of Gastronomy, which is (I think) the only Masters program still. A Masters in Dietary, Food Science, Nutrition etc are home EC and hospital occupations- not restaurant. (thus would never be hired to teach even a basic cooking course)
So...
I see ads ALL THE TIME for culinary arts instructors at 4 year colleges needing "Masters Degrees in Culinary Arts, PhD preferred" which there are exactly ZERO in existence. The highest prestige in my field is a CMC (Certified Master Chef) sometimes the ad will say "and CMC preferred." A spiteful day, I emailed one HR department at a university, and explained that there were no qualified applicants in on the globe according to the ad. HR backpedaled and said that the Masters or PhD could be in any field, but the CMC was really what they were looking for. Interesting, so I did my homework, and it turns out that the existing pool of CMCs (again, less than 80 in the world) are easily searchable (since they are famous) and only 2 had masters degrees, one had a PhD but he died.
Wow, 2 people on the globe "might" be qualified to teach your "introductory foodservice" course. Amazing.
In fairness, I don't think they are deliberately trying to be difficult, but it is more a case of ignorance. To be fair, I wouldn't be able to write an ad for a job outside my area of expertise very well.
If you are still hesitant to apply, perhaps you could call the HR department and ask them to further explain what kind of education they are looking for.