BSc (Hons) Pure Mathematics, University of Birmingham, UK.
On that course If you got a first, 2(i), 2(ii) or third you got an honours degree.
If you got less than a third but didn’t fail you got a pass degree, which was not classed as honours.
It was a three year course.
Before I was at Edinburgh, the rule was that if they kicked you out at the end of your third year, you left with a Bachelor’s; if you made it through the fourth year, you got a Master’s. (MA or MSc, depending on your faculty, obviously enough.)
But while I was there, the people who left after three years (IIRC, whether you did three or four was based on how well you did in the first two years) were Masters (General). Whereas if you stayed the full four years, you were a Master (Honours). To confuse the issue further, there was also the General Honours degree … let’s not go there.
My CNAA-approved conversion MSc from Newcastle Poly, on the other hand, had no “honours” of any kind attached to it, even in concept. Story of my life, really.
Agree with kabbes that a general rule cannot be formulated.
It is interesting, however, to notice the difference between countries. As others have said, Honours at an Australian university (or South African, it seems) usually requires a extra year of study.
Are there any courses in the UK that have this requirement or is three years the norm? What about in the US?
Narrad, LLB, BCom <- just to fit in with this thread. 