Preparing for midterm exams recently, some University of Bridgeport students passed around square boards, padded vests and helmets.

Paired off in the university dojo, sparring students landed bone-jolting kicks before moving on to a board-breaking test. One student failed in three tries to split an inch-thick slab held about 5 feet high. Another tried to kick through two boards held at different levels. He broke the lower board twice but couldn't crack the upper.

Professor Yongbom Kim slowed down the student and urged him to concentrate. "Last chance," Kim said before the student's third try.

Splat! Splat! The class cheered, then sat silently while Kim prepared to announce grades.

For these young people, tae kwon do is not an easy elective or physical-education credit. They are national pioneers, pursuing the only bachelor's degree in martial-arts studies available in the U.S.

The program mixes practical lessons in tae kwon do, tai chi and karate with studies of the cultures behind these forms of self-defense and spiritual growth.

Since the university launched the major in 2005, interest has steadily increased, and department leaders say that trend likely will continue.

Faculty members, however, are quick to counter perceptions that they're handing out college degrees for barroom fighting or bully beating. Although physical training is a big part of the program, students also must absorb a liberal-arts curriculum that includes the psychology of martial arts and the history of fighting skills developed in China, Korea and Japan.

"We're trying to raise the level of consciousness about what the martial arts really represent," said Mark K. Setton, a professor of world religions who is chairman of the martial-arts studies program.

In South Korea, more than a dozen colleges offer martial-arts degrees, but Connecticut's Board of Governors for Higher Education called the University of Bridgeport's program the only one of its kind in the Western world.

The board licensed the program in October 2004 and granted full accreditation in December. Winning state approval wasn't easy. In evaluating the proposed program, state officials wanted to see more diverse course offerings.

"After reviewing the original curriculum, [the state Department of Higher Education] expressed its concerns that the major requirement and the free elective categories appeared to focus on the `practice' rather than the `theories, histories and religions' related to martial arts," a state report on the university's license application said.

"Basically," Setton said, "the message was: `Do you realize how significant this is?' and `You better get it right because you're setting a tradition here.'"

Raised in England, Setton had an early interest in Asia, particularly Confucianism, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in education and East Asian philosophy and a master's degree in Confucian studies from Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul, South Korea.

He speaks Korean and Japanese and has taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of California at Berkley and at Oxford University in England, where he earned his doctorate.

Kim, a native of South Korea, holds a seventh-degree black belt in tae kwon do.

The director of the university's Martial Arts Institute also has a bachelor's and a master's degree in martial arts, from Kyung Hee University in South Korea. He has been teaching tae kwon do at the University of Bridgeport for about 10 years.

The university has had connections with Kim's home country for years. In the early 1990s, the Professor's World Peace Academy - sponsored by the World Unification Church, led by Korean native the Rev. Sun Myung Moon - pumped money into the university and saved it from bankruptcy. University officials today describe the college as nonsectarian.

UB officials began to seriously consider a martial-arts major about seven years ago, said Thomas Ward, dean of the university's International College.

Both as entertainment and the focus of serious study, martial arts has been wildly popular in the U.S., a trend that began in the late 1940s with U.S. soldiers stationed in Japan and blasted off in the early 1970s with action films starring Bruce Lee.

Martial-arts studies and team competitions also have been gaining popularity on campuses throughout the U.S. Indiana University and the University of California at Berkley both offer intensive, non-degree programs. Last May, Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., launched an academic program combining tae kwon do with lessons in anatomy and operating a sports business, according to the Orange County Register.

"Martial arts is coming into its own," said Ric Meyers, a guest lecturer in UB's program and contributing editor to Inside Kung Fu magazine.

"In an increasingly difficult world, people need to find a way to protect themselves and also find inner peace."

Meyers, Kim and others who are immersed in the martial-arts world stressed that lessons learned in the dojo promote nonviolence, self-confidence and steady improvement of mind, body and spirit.

"The more capable you become in martial arts, the less interested you are in destroying people," Meyers said.

Adam Jara of Fairfield, a 21-year-old UB junior pursuing a minor in martial arts, said he started self-defense training at age 8. Like others in his and previous generations, Jara said, he was motivated by TV shows and movies that hawked the bully-bashing empowerment of martial arts. "I was picked on because I was a real small kid," Jara said.

Since then, however, the psychology major said, he has learned confidence and "an extreme amount of self-control."

From the beginning, Ward said, faculty members believed the martial-arts program had to be based not in physical education, but in liberal arts. So along with regular physical training, students also must tackle Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism and at least one East Asian language, among other subjects.

The major can be paired with a variety of minors, and career objectives among current students include law enforcement, health care and martial-arts instruction.

First-year student Chris O'Neill, 20, has been studying martial arts since age 5 and wants to be a stunt actor. During the recent midterm exams, O'Neill received all As from "Master Kim."

"I have no doubt that this school will help me achieve my goals and reach my dreams," O'Neill wrote in an e-mail. "They have already helped me so much. There is nothing better than studying something you love."

Most of the 15 current martial-arts majors and six students pursuing minors in the program have some experience in the various forms. About half of the students are pursuing training in tae kwon do, while the rest are split between tai chi and karate. The program is designed to teach students of different experience levels, Kim said.

Some of the most advanced students are immigrants from South Korea. Hyun Kyu Seo, 26, for example, transferred from a college in his native country where he was pursuing a martial-arts degree. Now a fifth-degree black belt, Seo said his goal is to open a martial-arts school and do security work after he graduates this spring.

As it is staffed and equipped now, the UB program could handle up to 50 students, university officials said, but they're in no rush to expand.

"We want to find our way," Ward said. "We're not interested in attracting droves of people."

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