Bachelor degree
A bachelor degree isa an undergraduate degree taught at college or university and takes between three to six years to complete through full time study. Many of the bachelor degree majors are taught through part time study and distance learning through online study, part time and online bachelor degrees take longer to complete.
Some bachelor degree take longer to complete for example some engineering degree and architecture degrees could take up to five years to complete while some medical degrees could take between five and six years to complete through full time study.
In the US higher education degrees in law and medicine are not offered at the undergraduate level and are completed as graduate study after students graduate with a bachelor degree in biology or another major.
There are many bachelor degree titles and abbreviations but the most popular degrees are the Bachelor of Arts (BA, AB) and the Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, ScB), Bachelor of Law (LLB), Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) and Bachelors degrees in Medicine & Surgery (MB BChir or BM BCh or BM BS or MB ChB or MB BS). The bachelor degree is taught in almost all majors including:
- Bachelor in Accounting & Finance
- Bachelor in Business Management
- Bachelor in Computer Science
- Bachelor in eCommerce
- Bachelor in eBusiness
- Bachelor in Education
- Bachelor in Engineering
- Bachelor in Health Care Management
- Bachelor in Health Science
- Bachelor in Human Resourcesv
- Bachelor in International Management
- Bachelor in Information Technology
- Bachelor in Media & communications
- Bachelor in Marketing
- Bachelor in Medicine
- Bachelor in Nursing
- Bachelor in Science
- Bachelor in Telecommunication
British Bachelor Degree
UK universities offer 3-year bachelor degrees with the exception of medical and dentistry degrees which take 5 years to complete. International students who don't have the right qualifications need to take a foundation year before joining the bachelor degree. The biggest distinction made is whether the bachelor degree is awarded with or without honours. Nowadays, nearly all students sit for honours bachelor degrees; an ordinary (or pass) bachelor degree (i.e. a degree without honours) is usually awarded to a student who marginally fails the honours examination, or significant parts of the degree. A student who fails badly is usually allowed to retake the examination for a pass degree, as most universities prohibit such a student from receiving honours.
Most universities award a class of degree based on the average mark of the assessed work a candidate has completed. Below is a list of the possible classifications with common abbreviations. Rough percentages for each class are also listed, these percentages vary between subjects and universities:
| Class | Class | Level | Percentage |
| First class degree | 1st | Excellent | 70% + |
| Upper second | 2:1 | Very good | 60-70% |
| Lower second | 2:2 | Good | 50-60% |
| Third class | 3rd | Satisfactory | 40-50% |
| Ordinary Degree | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Unclassified (some degrees aren't classified master degrees like medicine)
The British education system does allow for a small amount of discretion and students maybe elevated up to the next degree class if their average mark is close and they have submitted many pieces of work worthy of the higher class. However, they may be demoted a class if they fail to pass all parts of the bachelor degree course even if they have a high average.
There are also variations between universities (especially with universities in Scotland, where honours are usually reserved only for bachelor degree courses lasting four years or more) and requirements other than the correct average are often needed to be awarded a bachelor degree with honours. When a student is awarded a bachelor degree with honours, they can suffix (Hons) to their class of degree, such as BA (Hons) or BSc (Hons).
At University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, honours classes apply to examinations, not to degrees. Thus, in Cambridge, where undergraduates are examined at the end of each part of the tripos, a student may receive different classifications for different parts. The classification of the final part is usually considered the classification of the degree. At Oxford, the Final Honour School results are generally applied to the bachelor degree.
In some universities, candidates who successfully complete one or more years of degree-level study, but choose not to or fail to complete a full degree, may be awarded a lower qualification such as a Certificate of Higher Education or Higher National Certificate for one year of study, or a Diploma of Higher Education or Higher National Diploma for two years of study.