Harvard Extension School Students Rally for Degree Name Change

[ReyMysterioso]

One potential issue is that no matter how a graduate represents their degree, an outside credentialing body can make their own determination. Say you have a Master of Liberal Arts "in Extension Studies" in the transcripted field of study Biology, and it's part of your application to work a biology teacher. Will your school board and your state teacher licensing body deem the degree a degree in the subject of Biology, or in the subject of "Extension Studies?" The answer is rarely if ever transparent to interested candidates before they apply. (Deeming the subject "Liberal Arts" is unlikely. They wouldn't deem a "Master of Arts in History" a degree in "Arts," they'd deem it a degree in "History.")

Well-explained. I had always dismissed it as nothing more than a semantics quirk until I heard about a couple people who literally lost job offers over exactly this confusion - whether the potential employer will interpret your degree in the actual field you studied, or whether they will interpret it as a degree in "extension studies." 

It's worth noting the university itself advertises these programs as degrees in the fields studied: https://extension.harvard.edu/academics/.../#outcomes The degree in question is desribed on that page repeatedly as a "History Master's Degree" and nowhere as an "Extension Studies Master's Degree." Their naming convention is completely incongruent with the structure of the curriculum, the organization and directorships of individual programs, and the advertisement and information.

It simply needs to change, full stop.