What does (Cantab) mean?

I have seen this after people's names. E.g David Smith BA (hons), MA (cantab).

Can anybody shed light as to what this means?

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Reply 1

sunspoon

Cambridge.

Usually used to denote that a degree is from Camrbidge, eg MA (Cantab.)

The equivalent for Oxford is MA (Oxon)

Reply 2

cpj1987

Just Googled it and it says it's latin for Cambridge Uni.

Reply 3

Caligula_

Cambridge i do believe

http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oxinfo/guide/section3_10.html

edit: heh 3 posts at 19:15

Reply 4

visesh

Of Cambridge (short for catabrigiensis, from Cantabrigia, the Latin form of Cambridge)

Reply 5

Cruzaro

Thats alot!
It seems to make a lot of sense that I have often seen it after headteacher's names!

Reply 6

aaaaz

The University is the third oldest University in England, being set up in 1834, {only Oxford and Cambridge Universities are older, and along with these and Exeter, Durham graduates are the only University graduates in England who can put latin abbreviations after their names, i.e. BSc.(Dunelm) for Durham, (Cantab, Oxon and Exon for the other three), Dunelm is short of Dunelmensesis of Durham}.

From: http://maths.dur.ac.uk/~dma1jas/Durham.html

For member institutions of the Association of Commonwealth Universities , there is a standard list of abbreviations, but in practise many variations are used. Most notable is the use of the Latin abbreviations 'Oxon.' and 'Cantab.' for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in spite of these having been superseded by (little used) English 'Oxf.' and 'Camb.' Other Latin abbreviations include Exon. for the University of Exeter, Dunelm. for Durham University, Ebor. for the University of York and Cantuar. for the University of Kent (formerly the "University of Kent at Canterbury").

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree#United_Kingdom

Reply 7

ChemistBoy

aaaaz

From: http://maths.dur.ac.uk/~dma1jas/Durham.html

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree#United_Kingdom

So basically Durham bull****ting about themselves yet again. Kings College London is older than Durham and other universities outside of Oxbridge can use latin postnomials (in fact one could make up a latin postnomial for every university, there is no rule that says it isn't allowed or that it is some special privilege awarded to a few universities its just that most universities don't bother with that kind of pointless pretentious crap).

Basically, yes!

Yeah, as above for Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and... Durham. And then, Southampton have 'Soton', too. Those are the only ones I know of.

Reply 10

andy5788

Isn't it used especially with Ox and Cam though because you're entitled to apply to update a bachelors to a masters there so many years after graduating without doing any more work. Which was fine until real masters degrees started being awarded and so Ox and Cam put (Oxon) or (Cantab) after MA's to show they're not the real ones, just the honourary type ones.

Reply 11

Good bloke

Exactly. M.A. (Cantab) indicates that the person has only a first degree, despite it being an MA. It is not as good as an MA from another university and is equivalent to a BA.

Reply 12

MissSurfer

So what's the difference between an MA (Cantab) and BA from Cambridge then? If you can (or used to be able to) update to a MA from a BA - what did you have to do to upgrade it?

Reply 13

visesh

MissSurfer

So what's the difference between an MA (Cantab) and BA from Cambridge then? If you can (or used to be able to) update to a MA from a BA - what did you have to do to upgrade it?

http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/so_ch05.pdf

"At Cambridge, the MA may be conferred six years after the end of the first term in residence upon anyone holding a Cambridge Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree." - wiki

Reply 14

L i b

ChemistBoy

Do you use your "(St And.)" post nominal, by any chance? I've seen it done.

I generally hold that any university can do it. But realistically, it looks a bit daft is done outside of "Doxbridge". KCL is indeed older, yes, but personally if I wanted to be going around with institutional post-nominals from there, I'd get an AKC. Durham is a grey area really, but I'm happy to let it go without assuming any pretense on behalf of the post-nominee.

BornUnderPunches

Yeah, as above for Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and... Durham. And then, Southampton have 'Soton', too. Those are the only ones I know of.

Exeter?! What's the world coming to?

I'm sure I've seen York (Ebor), as said above St Andrews (St And) - in fact, probably all of the traditional Scottish unis occasionally (on that note, I'd love to know what Marischal and King's College/University did in Aberdeen before unification - or perhaps it's a more recent thing).

Reply 15

L i b

andy5788

That logic falls flat on its back as a result of the undergraduate MA being issued by all of the ancient structured universities, not just Oxford and Cambridge. For the record, these are Aberdeen, Dublin, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews.

Reply 16

MissSurfer

visesh

Ah right, so it's like a time thing. Kinda silly really.. do you not even have to work in the field you did your degree in or anything like that? Seems like all you have to do is live 6 years and you get a different (I would say better but probably isn't really!) degree?

Reply 17

andy5788

^^ It wasn't better when the system started (waaay before masters degrees even existed) and the (Oxon)/(Cantab) thing is to differentiate it from real, postgraduate MA's.

Reply 18

ChemistBoy

Libertinus Septentrionalis

No, I don't use it, because its pointless. Personally I think that it is pretty silly at all times, although I do appreciate the need to differentiate the oxbridge MA from a proper one. So, I suppose it would be more appropriate for the scottish ancients to do it too considering they still carry on this confusing and archaic practice of dishing out master's degrees to people who don't deserve them. Durham do it because they think it makes their degrees worth more, which is rather sad. I guess I'm in an evironment where everyone has post-nomials coming out of their earholes (excluding bracketed ones I am entitled to use 19 letters after my name and I am a very junior member of staff) and as such trying to 'big up' yourself by adding bracketed post-nomials is viewed as pretensious in the extreme.

I've seen most universities used in postnomials, dentists seem to be particularly fond of the practice.

Reply 19

L i b

The point on dentists is very true, in my experience. Particularly ones in "local" practices.

I was unaware that Durham did the ancient MA as well. Something new every day, and so forth.