Post-Secondary Education Definition

The first stage in the traditional western model of formal schooling is called primary schooling. It is generally thought to encompass the kindergarten through elementary grades. Secondary schooling comes after and ends after the high school level. As such, post-secondary school is any degree of high education received after high school.

• Post-secondary schooling is more commonly known as higher education. Though rare, it is also occasionally referred to as tertiary or third stage education. Because the term "post-secondary education" is quite a broad term, encompassing all formal school past the high school level, there are many different types and levels of schooling that full under the post-secondary category. Two-year, undergraduate, postgraduate and vocational degrees are all considered post-secondary degrees.


• After high school, a student may decide to enroll in a two-year college or community college for an associate's degree. Students may also decide to go a different route and enroll in a trade or vocational school. This is different from a university and is focused more on a skilled trade and less on academics.


• After completing this, or also directly after high school, a student may also decide to enroll in an undergraduate degree program from an accredited four-year college or university. There are a huge variety of degrees that can be earned at this level, from the humanities or sciences to business. 


• For even more advanced and further schooling, the next step is a postgraduate degree, where a student can earn a master's and then, if desired, a doctoral degree. The specific degree program and field the student focuses on will determine the length of the graduate degree program. Some can be as short as two years, with others lasting for a much longer duration. In all cases, the more schooling students receive and the more advanced the degree program, the more specialized and focused their study will be. For example, an undergraduate may earn a bachelor of arts degree in music. After that, he may earn a master's degree in music history. Even further along, he may earn a doctoral degree in historical musicology with a specialty in Renaissance madrigalism.


• Degrees that are the highest possible in a specific field, for example, a doctorate in music, is sometimes referred to as a terminal degree.