a bachelor of arts or ba is a college degree. it takes three years to get it in australia, austria, denmark, estonia, england, wales, northern ireland, germany, iceland, india, israel, the netherlands, new zealand, norway, quebec, pakistan, singapore, south africa, and switzerland. it takes four years in canada, republic of ireland, scotland, japan, united states, republic of korea, and the philippines. "bachelor of arts" is often written as "ba" or "b.a." the latin term is "artium baccalaureus" so some colleges use the abbreviation of "ab" or "a.b."