Undergraduate Courses

Bachelor of Arts (BA) is higher education qualification studied at Higher Education Colleges or universities that helps students to develop a thorough understanding of a subject at levels 4/5 and 6. Unlike other courses such as Accountancy, BAs are assessed on an entirely academic basis.

The BA requires specialist knowledge on a particular subject or subjects and is commonly assessed through essays and dissertations. It develops students’ critical-thinking, information utilisation and transference, and written and spoken skills.

A level of study and information presentation is required leading to Masters or PhD study. Bas take three years full-time or four years part-time to complete. Usually lecture attendance is required. Online study is possible with most universities, but not with the best universities, but flexible learning can be negotiated with even the better universities.

UK degrees are classified as either Ordinary or Honours – this can vary according to the university or college. Top students are awarded a First Class degree, the next an Upper Second Class degree (usually referred to as a 2:1), followed by a Lower Second Class degree (usually referred to as a 2:2), while those with the lowest marks gain a Third Class degree.

BA course are generally suitable for school and college leavers with a level-3 qualification such as A-Level, BTEC, Higher Secondary Certificates, etc. For the better universities such as Bristol, Durham or Cambridge and Oxford a student is expected to obtain the highest marks in each subject taken. Competition is fierce at these universities.

All Arts undergraduate courses at UK universities lead to a Bachelor of Arts. Students enrol on either a BA or BA (Hons) degree course. The standard BA is usually known as an ‘Ordinary’ BA and is equivalent to 300 credits usually omitting the project or dissertation in the final year.

The ‘Hons’ represents 360+ credits of study typically over three years full time and often contains a substantial project or dissertation during the final year of study.

The allocation of marks according to level achieved is as described above for both standard and Honours degrees. After successful completion of the Honours course a student has the right to add Honours to their degree. An Ordinary or unclassified degree (which does not give the graduate the right to add Hons) may be awarded if a student has completed the full honours degree course but has obtained a very low pass mark that is insufficient to merit a third-class honours degree.

A Bachelor of Science is referred to as a BSc and BSc (Hons). In the UK, except Scotland, an honours degree is completed over a three-year period. It represents a considerable investment of time and money, but nevertheless provides substantial opportunities in the modern world.

In Britain and Ireland, as in the United States and Canada, a Bachelor of Science is typically awarded upon the successful completion of an undergraduate programme in one or more fields of the sciences. The completion period for the degree varies according to the nature of study, as, for example, on-line study than direct study at a university.

As with the BA, t he top students are awarded a First Class degree, the next best, an Upper Second class degree (usually referred to as a 2:1), followed by a lower second class degree (usually referred to as a 2:2), while those with the lowest acceptable marks gain a Third Class degree

The Bachelor of Science with Honours degree comprises one full-time year of coursework that includes a research component. Students are admitted to the BSc (Hons) programme following the completion of a Bachelor of Science degree with a high level of achievement in their subject area.