Each discipline usually has several sub-disciplines or branches and distinguishing lines are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.
Historically (in medieval Europe) there where only four , Medicine , Jurisprudence and Art s, with the last one having a somewhat lower status than the other three. Today's disciplines have their roots in the mid- to late-19th century Secularization of universities, when the traditional curriculum was supplemented by non-classical languages and literatures, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. In the opening decades of the 20th century, education, sociology, and psychology took their place in the university curriculum.
" denotes a field whose academic status is debated.
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP 2000) : Developed by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics to provide a taxonomic scheme that will support the accurate tracking, assessment, and reporting of fields of study and program completions activity.
