NationStates Jolt Archive

At British Universities, the highest level of an undergraduate certificate is BA/BSc (Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Technology) (with Honours, though I think there are some without) Degree. There may be others that I'm not aware of. Anyway the BA/Bsc Degree usually has a set of different types: Pass, 3rd Class, 2:2 (Lower Second Class), 2:1 (Upper Second Class), and 1st Class (the highest grade).

Is it the same for American degrees?

P.S. Below the Degree, there are courses that lead to Diplomas (Higher National Diploma, or HND). There are also certificates above the Degree, but not in the undergraduate system.

I'm sure someone will eventually answer your question, but given what the time is in most of the States it will be a while.

I believe it goes somewhere along the lines of cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude

Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_cum_laude

I suppose, from what you have written, you believe that honours degrees have been abandoned in the UK.

However, since I know that is not the case, I can only assume you don't know what you are talking about.

You missed out MB ChB, the qualification for a medicine course. Not entirely sure what it stands for.

You missed out MB ChB, the qualification for a medicine course. Not entirely sure what it stands for.

Batchelor of medicine and batchelor of surgery.

I suppose, from what you have written, you believe that honours degrees have been abandoned in the UK.

However, since I know that is not the case, I can only assume you don't know what you are talking about.
A first class degree is a first class HONOURS degree.
So if your mark was first class, you would have BA (Hons) or BSc (Hons).
Also, a BSc is a bachelor of science, not technology!

So if your mark was first class, you would have BA (Hons) or BSc (Hons).


Might be slightly different here, but I think a 2.2 and up qualifies you as B.(whatever) (Hons).

I suppose, from what you have written, you believe that honours degrees have been abandoned in the UK.

However, since I know that is not the case, I can only assume you don't know what you are talking about.

If you were talking to me, you are wrong. I just forgot to put "honours". I was talking about honours degrees - I know very well they exist, I'm aiming for one on my current course.

I suppose, from what you have written, you believe that honours degrees have been abandoned in the UK.

However, since I know that is not the case, I can only assume you don't know what you are talking about.


oh dear, completely unnecessary

Oh and P.S., Lacadaemon, it's people like you who make the Americans think we're a load of stuck-up prats.

I suppose, from what you have written, you believe that honours degrees have been abandoned in the UK.

However, since I know that is not the case, I can only assume you don't know what you are talking about.
Just not smart.

Oh and P.S., Lacadaemon, it's people like you who make the Americans think we're a load of stuck-up prats.
I wonder why I believe you...

*tries not to launch into an anti-American rant*

*breathes*

You forgot B.Phils and B.Techs. I have a couple of friends who'd be fairly pissed off if their degree didn't exist c.c

I think B.Ed, and B.Eng also exist... meh all this is pointless, a univeristy can create pretty much any degree they like, but they tend to stick to the conventions because even academics like conventions.

http://www.huron.ac.uk/programs/index.html#undergraduate
http://www.huron.ac.uk/programs/index.html#postgraduate

This should help -- American Degrees conferred by a UK school.

A friend of mine's a pharmacy undergraduate, I think he's doing a straight MPharm. Explain that :confused:

A friend of mine's a pharmacy undergraduate, I think he's doing a straight MPharm. Explain that :confused:
Because you're not qualified to dispense medicines until you have an MPharm, making a 3-year BPharm redundant.
*EDIT* You also have to join the Roylal Pharmaceutical Society (I think that's what it's called) and have MRPharmS after your name

My school does the same with BA and BSc and there's regular and honours, there's also a BHSc (bachelor's of health sciences) but I think the only thing they add on is "with distinction" if you do above a certain grade.

In the UK, a third class degree is 40-49%, a 2(2) is 50-59%, a 2(1) is 60-69% and a first class honours degree is 70% and over

They have that curious way to grade with letters and then calculate something Grade Points Average which goes from 0 to 4 by assigning a value to each letter. They'd save themselves a lot of trouble if they just graded from 0 to 10 or 0 to 100, but noooooo!

They have that curious way to grade with letters and then calculate something Grade Points Average which goes from 0 to 4 by assigning a value to each letter. They'd save themselves a lot of trouble if they just graded from 0 to 10 or 0 to 100, but noooooo!
Who are you talking about?

Who are you talking about?
US schools. I was kind of trying to contribute an answer of sorts to the OP, but I see the discussion took a bit of a detour.

There are the following levels at higher education undergraduate level in Britain

Cert (60 credits or equivalent of 9 months)
Dip (180 credits or equivalent of 18 months)
Then it gets complicated,
BA, BSc, BEng, BD (dentistry), LLB (Law), BPharm, etc… (360 credits or equivalent of three years)
B? (Hons) (420 credits, or equivalent of three years and a 10 000 word dissertation)

However, In the ancient universities (mainly in Scotland and Ireland, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Queen’s) use the term Masters instead of Bachelors. In England and Wales it is expected that you will complete a Bachelors degree and if you are very good complete your Honours while in Ireland and Scotland it is expected that you will complete your Honours degree and only leave with a bachelors (without honours) if you are not quite good enough.

In South Africa, for example, the have similar titles for less high degrees BKomm, BTech, but the Honours degree is a separate post graduate degree.

They have that curious way to grade with letters and then calculate something Grade Points Average which goes from 0 to 4 by assigning a value to each letter. They'd save themselves a lot of trouble if they just graded from 0 to 10 or 0 to 100, but noooooo!
If it makes you feel any better, my school does 0 to 12.

http://www.csusm.edu/Academic_Advising/gpa/index.htm

As far as I know, most American universities award undergraduates either a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) or B.S. (Bachelor of Science). My school also awarded a degree called the B.A.S. (Bachelor of Arts and Science), but I don't know how common that is across the U.S. I don't know of any schools that have subclassifications for degrees, like you described. I believe a lot of schools confer degrees cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude. My school, however, did not do this. Instead, the top 15% of the graduating class graduated "with distinction". It is also possible to complete an honors program, the requirements of which are usually determined by your department.

Actually, the UK has 4-year undergrad Masters (eg MEng) which is higher up the ladder than a BEng, and so on.

In the UK, a third class degree is 40-49%, a 2(2) is 50-59%, a 2(1) is 60-69% and a first class honours degree is 70% and over
Vaguely. It differs from university to university. I only need an average of 55-64% to get a 2:1, so long as in half my modules in the 2nd and 3rd years I get >59%.

Let us be a little clearer about these percentage figures that the Brits are throwing around.

These numbers 40-49%, 50-59%, 60-69% and 70%+ are not really percentages given that the normalised marking scale for university exams runs from 20% to 76% in general (i.e. if you do a maths exam and answer every question in full and correctly you will be given a mark of 76% after normalising)

This is to allow for the strange students like myself who took a dual honours degree with one honour being in the humanities and the other in the sciences. (In my case it was philosophy and computing.) As humanities have a tradition that no essay can ever be perfect, they can not, and will not, give out grades of 100%. Over time there emerged a standard that said 70% was excellent and giving a grade of anything over that was really rather superfluous. They did however accept that there were degrees of excellence and so marks up to 76% in most institutions can be awarded. Now the sciences, being (so they think) more objective could give evaluate answers as being perfect, so grades up to 100% were possible. With the introduction of modularisation and mix and match degree schemes this discrepency in marking had to be eliminated, and it was easier to scale the exact sciences results down to the humanities than the other way around.

So, whoever complained about the g.p.a system being complicated, the UK is no better, and very possibly worse.