BA Oxon?

Think you might be write, not sure.
Feeling you get MSci but not BSci? Could be completely wrong.

The Hons part is sometimes subscripted or even omitted.

I don't think you can get a BSc from Cambridge, can you? Even the NatScis graduate with BAs.

Think you might be right, not sure.
Feeling you get MSci but not BSci? Could be completely wrong.

I think they do MScis, but they're undergrad qualifications, the postgrad ones that are based on research more are MPhils.
You get a MA regardless after a certain amount of time - is it 6/7 years?

Isn't there something daft about not getting divorced in that time too? Or am I making things up again?

i think oxford is 7 years after matriculation.

Do the 4 year NatSci course, you get an MSci; 3 years it's a BA.

Hmm... this is going to sound petty, but I feel a little put out by the fact that Oxbridge awards masters level degree for what is essentially a four-year undergraduate course. (Is this common throughout England?)

In a word... Yeah!

I applied for chemistry last year and I think at all of the universities I applied to you could get an MChem for four years' study. The fourth year is usually research-based and I think you have to decide by the third year because they cover extra ground there.

Yeah happens all over the place. The 4-year 'degree' courses were introduced about 7 or 8 years ago. The reason was that the universities were starting to insist on applicants for PhDs having a master's degree.

Yeah happens all over the place. The 4-year 'degree' courses were introduced about 7 or 8 years ago. The reason was that the universities were starting to insist on applicants for PhDs having a master's degree.

Hmm... I don't know that this is necessarily true... I've been accepted to read for a PhD without a master's degree. Furthermore, I'll be doing it in physics, whereas my undergraduate degree was in engineering.

Well, I've been told by admissions tutors that the undergraduate Masters degrees were introduced for many reasons. First is due to the less demanding nature of A-levels, so more teaching has to be done to get a better degree. Also, our European friends normally do a 4-year undergraduate degree, so if you want a good job abroad then you need to do study for longer.
J.

The 4-year degree is usually for students who want to do a job in that area of study, whereas the 3-year degree is for those that don't necessarily want to enter that field.

J.

I find that amazing, that's the first example of that I've ever heard of. Without wanting to dismiss your achievements there must have been some extra funding that they had to use. Or maybe you're just exceptionally bright .

I honestly don't think the universities care about the employability of their graduates abroad and so comparing their graduates with those on the continent is fairly irrelevant. Universities care about (a) filling their course (b) producing graduates who are likely to want to stay on into postgraduate study and (c) producing graduates who are employable. In that order. The newer universities will have more emphasis on the employability of people. I am absolutely convinced from everything I've seen at university that the main reason to introduce the 4 year courses is to increase the number (and hence standard) of people applying to do a PhD.

Do they really want more PhD's? I was given to understand that they were as common as dirt these days. From what I've read, there is an oversupply of them.