prospects for an ordinary degree in BEng Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologie

Hi Everyone!!!

I am graduating with an ordinary degree not because my marks were too bad to get an honours, i just went for the shorter/cheaper option.

I WILL one day upgrade it into an honours but right now I need a career.

A friend of mine says that an ordinary degree without an honours is useless, I dont really think it is. So what kind of job would I get with that?

any thoughts appreciated ..

Engineering is notorious for employers not giving a **** about your degree. The only firms I've encountered that care about degree classification are the big drilling rig operators like BP, Shell, and Total and some of the more well known other companies like Rolls Royce and BAE. Ignore the above post because it's a load of rubbish - very few professionals will give a damn that you haven't got an honours degree and once you've got a few years of experience in your field under your belt it'll be totally irrelevant.

Thanks for the words of encouragement smack, i was starting to get a bit hopeless lol !

That's what I thought so too, I think that a lot of medium sized companies wont even tell the difference between an honours and ordinary degree, as long as its a Bachelors, I am at least more qualified for a lot of Jobs than a lot of school leavers ! plus I am really flexible when it comes for picking a job I'd go for nearly anything as my first graduate's job as long as its somehow related to my degree..

I am a self funded Canadian, so I don't enjoy the government's financial support brits do, so no loans for me, but I am planing to stay in the UK after I graduate , for a while at least. Or I might go back to Canada to get my Masters, but I'm still not sure how Canadian universities perceive UK ordinary degrees, I phoned a few and they said its usually NOT a problem but I am still not convinced, yea I have trust issues !

..

Just a sec - where did you get this degree and where are you hoping to use it? The previous respondent seems to be Scottish and is presumably talking about using a Scottish ordinary degree in Scotland. There, they might be more acceptable. But in England and Wales, and more generally, an ordinary degree is one grade below a third and just above a complete fail. It is going to be hard to explain on your CV. You might be lucky and get a CV reader that doesn't realise the BEng is significantly different to BEng (Hons), but you may well not. As I said before, your best chance is to use it in the specific niche of renewables and sustainable technology.

Just a sec - where did you get this degree and where are you hoping to use it? The previous respondent seems to be Scottish and is presumably talking about using a Scottish ordinary degree in Scotland. There, they might be more acceptable. But in England and Wales, and more generally, an ordinary degree is one grade below a third and just above a complete fail. It is going to be hard to explain on your CV. You might be lucky and get a CV reader that doesn't realise the BEng is significantly different to BEng (Hons), but you may well not. As I said before, your best chance is to use it in the specific niche of renewables and sustainable technology.

Well that'd be even better then since he'll still have covered the same material as those who have good enough grades to get an honours.

Unfortunately not as the Scottish system starts a year early, so he would have effectively done Yr 13 work in the first year, 1st year work in the 2nd year and 2nd year work in the third year, by Honours degree standards. The fourth year of a Scottish degree is equivalent to the third year of an English degree, which makes it an Honours degree.

As it is, he went to Glyndwr, so he has done a 'lite' degree from a brand new university.

Leveraging the speciality of the subject is the greatest strength in all of that.

That's not an impossible situation by any means, but let's not pretend it is a strong one. If the OP had the aptitude to have done an Honours degree, then they should have done it, because ordinary degrees are less than thirds.

I'm by no means saying that a BEng (Honours) degree is easy, it is a well respected degree. However, the OP has the degree from a brand new university that has little or no reputation, and employers will not have any measure of the calibre of graduates, other than their degree classification.

The OP asked what his prospects were with an ordinary degree. Glyndwr have elected to offer an ordinary degree option, which means that the level it is pitched at, or the content it contains is just above that of a failed honours degree and slightly less that a third. There is an Honours option the OP cold have taken, so Glyndwr aren't exactly short changing him.

The OP can not put (Hons) or any degree classification on their degree, and will have to declare it is an ordinary degree without a classification on online application forms. There is no getting around the fact that this is going to be a significant problems, as a lot of employers are not going to see this as competitive. Look at the grief going on at the moment about the problem getting work with a 2.2. The OP's degree is two grades lower than a 2.2.

They asked the question, I have given a detailed and accurate answer, explaining every step of the way, and giving advice on the best way to leverage it.

Given the OP hasn't posted since December 2011 and this thread was from 2010, you may not get an answer.

Given OP's qualification I'm betting he's still in the same situation

But is it at the same level as an honours degree, though? I ask because I am doing an undergraduate masters degree, and it is not graded as an honours degree, but rather the masters system (Distinction, Merit and Pass) and as such isn't an honours degree, but I have had no problem applying to positions that ask for an honours degree.

A Scottish ordinary degree is actually below an honours degree from the rest of the UK.