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What did the academic title inceptor mean at the University of Oxford?
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William of Ockham
English theologian and philosopher William of Ockham, detail from a stained-glass window, c. 1985; in All Saints' Church, Ockham, Surrey, England.
At the University of Oxford, the academic title inceptor literally meant "beginner".1
In the context of the university's medieval structure, an inceptor was an individual who had completed the required course of study but had not yet obtained their master’s degree. Academically, such a person remained an undergraduate, equivalent to the Parisian designation baccalaureus formatus.1