Honours degree

The term "honours degree" may refer to a number of different things depending on the kind of degree being discussed and the educational institution being referenced. Most of the time, this term is used to refer to a subtype of the undergraduate bachelor's degree that is distinguished from a "ordinary," "generic," or "pass" bachelor's degree by the presence of either a greater amount of subject matter or a higher quality of study, or both. In certain cases, honours degrees are denoted by adding "Hons" after the abbreviation of the degree, with varying punctuation according to local tradition; for example, "BA (Hons)", "B.A., Hons", etc. An honours degree may be denoted in Canada by adding a "H" to the degree abbreviation, as in "HBA" for "Honours Bachelor of Arts" or "HBA" for "Honours Business Administration."

Honors degrees include the honours bachelor's degree in the United States; the bachelor's degree with honours in the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and India; the honours bachelor's degree in Ireland; the bachelor with honours and bachelor honours degree in New Zealand; the bachelor with honours and honours bachelor's degree in Canada; and the bachelor honours degree in Australia. Other examples of honours degrees include the bachelor with honours and honours bachelor's degree in New Zealand; the bachelor with honours The completion of a bachelor's degree is required in order to go on to the next level of education, which results in the awarding of a bachelor honours degree in South Africa. The undergraduate master of arts degree that may be conferred by the ancient universities of Scotland in lieu of the bachelor of arts can either be awarded with honours or without honours; either way, these degrees are at the same level as the comparable bachelor's degrees. The integrated master's degrees offered by British institutions at the master's level are also honours degrees. These degrees require students to start the programme at the same level as they did for their bachelor's degrees.

Numerous educational institutions, including universities and colleges, provide students the option to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree with or without honours. In the majority of nations in which higher education is available, a degree with honours denotes a greater level of academic performance than a degree without honours. As compared to a degree without honours, the amount of time spent studying for an honours degree is often far more in nations such as Australia. Normally, students who finish all of the requirements for a non-honours bachelor's degree but do not receive sufficient merit to be awarded an honours degree will be awarded a non-honours degree (also known as a "pass", "general", or "ordinary" degree). However, students who do not finish all of the requirements for an integrated master's honours degree may receive a bachelor's honours degree instead of an integrated master's degree. In contrast to the United States, where honours degrees are seldom given, almost every bachelor's degree in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales is conferred in the form of a first-class degree with honours.

In 1918, the current British undergraduate degree classification system was developed to differentiate between students on the basis of their academic achievement. The system divides honours into first, upper and lower second, and third class, and it was devised as a way to classify undergraduate degrees. Both of these examples show that the concept of a "honours" degree has been around for a very long time. Other nations such as Australia, Brunei, Canada, New Zealand, Malta, Singapore, South Africa, and Hong Kong are impacted by this system as well.