(Hons)
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Often in Jersey, but mainly in the past.
Age: 79
Posts: 7,808
Received 135 Likes
on
63 Posts
Which is about on par with me telling people that, on, average my brother my sister and I have two degrees each, but omitting to mention that they each got three. However, I do occasionally tell Americans that I went to Dartmouth, and they seem quite impressed that I attended an Ivy League school
My view?
I think that if you get annoyed by someone putting Cantab or Oxon after their name it says more about you than them. Good luck to them I say. I hope one or all of my kids will one day get to do the same. If they don’t I’ll still be just as proud.
FWIW, I have a very average degree (with Hons) from a very average educational institution.
Why live life being negative? It doesn’t make you any happier to disparage others.
BV
FWIW, I have a very average degree (with Hons) from a very average educational institution.
Why live life being negative? It doesn’t make you any happier to disparage others.
BV
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
And regarding Hull, which my daughter didn't go to, they were the moderator for my daughter's modern history degree and a dissertation on air policing in the inter-war years.
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: moraira,spain-Norfolk, UK
Age: 82
Posts: 389
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ghengis...
I was a Chartered Engineer once (not deserved), gave it up when I retired, fees too high for me.
My BSC was 'ordinary' (girl friend), my MSC the best of it's year according to Prof "L".
Nothing matters once you are established in your career.
Just my opinion, of course.
I was a Chartered Engineer once (not deserved), gave it up when I retired, fees too high for me.
My BSC was 'ordinary' (girl friend), my MSC the best of it's year according to Prof "L".
Nothing matters once you are established in your career.
Just my opinion, of course.
My daughter's Hons degree in Landscape Architecture from University of NSW was awarded on the basis of her overall scores achieved throughout the course. Not as an additional course component. She now runs an online business in an unrelated field.
My wife's degree is in Teacher Librarianship. She she is now an executive in an unrelated field.
My father's degree is in Theology. Yet he worked in an unrelated field for most of his career.
My sister has a Law degree but works in an unrelated field.
My niece has a Law/Accounting double degree (with Hons) and works in sports administration.
One son has a degree in Business. He flies FJ's for a living.
The other son left school after year 10 to do an apprenticeship. He's on track to be the family's first tycoon, in a field unrelated to the apprenticeship.
It it would seem, as a family, we have difficulty selecting the appropriate courses to start with.
My wife's degree is in Teacher Librarianship. She she is now an executive in an unrelated field.
My father's degree is in Theology. Yet he worked in an unrelated field for most of his career.
My sister has a Law degree but works in an unrelated field.
My niece has a Law/Accounting double degree (with Hons) and works in sports administration.
One son has a degree in Business. He flies FJ's for a living.
The other son left school after year 10 to do an apprenticeship. He's on track to be the family's first tycoon, in a field unrelated to the apprenticeship.
It it would seem, as a family, we have difficulty selecting the appropriate courses to start with.
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Road to Nowhere
Posts: 1,023
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
There are so many slight variations that they are almost impossible to keep a track of. When I did my first degree it was at a college (formerly RAF Padgate), which was overseen by the University of Manchester. All the BA degrees were Ordinary because they all entailed joint studies and the University of Manchester (more correctly titled the Victoria University of Manchester) would not issue Hons to joint studies. As such, my degree was issued as a pure BA without any possibility of Honours. It was all a bit odd at a time when many Higher Ed establishments were offering Joint Honours degrees.
Having completed the degree I applied to undertake an MSc in one of the subjects and was accepted subject to achieving the appropriate grade - a Distinction. This was equivalent, they felt, to a 2:1 or better in an Hons degree. I have to say that I didn't ever feel that others on the MSc, who had come from 'proper' universities had enjoyed a better standard of preparation than I had.
There are people starting to come through the system now with MSci degrees but no Bachelor credentials - these are 4-yr courses where the end result is an MSc, but by skipping the BSc bit, it allows the courses to be funded (by loan) for the full period; the extra 'i' is the tell-tale.
Having been in the mob now for 29 years, there are still times when I fall back on things I learned (especially stats!) and I do use the post nominals on business cards and the like. In my view it's the correct thing to do.
Incidentally, I still hold the view that the post noms act as a form of warning to others of how much professional knowledge can be expected as from a particular JO. As a very new flt lt 'Green Shielder', the fg offs around me were often a lot more professionally experienced than me.
STH MSc BA RAF
Having completed the degree I applied to undertake an MSc in one of the subjects and was accepted subject to achieving the appropriate grade - a Distinction. This was equivalent, they felt, to a 2:1 or better in an Hons degree. I have to say that I didn't ever feel that others on the MSc, who had come from 'proper' universities had enjoyed a better standard of preparation than I had.
There are people starting to come through the system now with MSci degrees but no Bachelor credentials - these are 4-yr courses where the end result is an MSc, but by skipping the BSc bit, it allows the courses to be funded (by loan) for the full period; the extra 'i' is the tell-tale.
Having been in the mob now for 29 years, there are still times when I fall back on things I learned (especially stats!) and I do use the post nominals on business cards and the like. In my view it's the correct thing to do.
Incidentally, I still hold the view that the post noms act as a form of warning to others of how much professional knowledge can be expected as from a particular JO. As a very new flt lt 'Green Shielder', the fg offs around me were often a lot more professionally experienced than me.
STH MSc BA RAF
What annoys me is the fact that my 2:1 degree which I got at the advanced age of 47 in 1993, and which I was congratulated on at the time now seems to be the norm, with a fair proportion of graduates getting firsts. On our year, out of 19 of us doing Russian degrees, only one got a first, and even he had to do a viva to confirm it. Of the remainder the split between 2:1s and 2:2s was about 40/60. Universities will tell you there has been no dilution of standards, but the figures speak for themselves
Not that it matters much to me, it's many years since I signed myself
TTN, BA (Exon)
Amen to that. A very proud day for us was attending our daughter's degree ceremony at the Sheldonian in Oxford, where she got her M.Litt. She quite shamelessly puts M.Litt (Oxon) after her name, with her MA and BA from Nottingham. It has impressed a few employers, even though nobody has a clue what an M.Litt is!
Not that it matters much to me, it's many years since I signed myself
TTN, BA (Exon)
I think that if you get annoyed by someone putting Cantab or Oxon after their name it says more about you than them. Good luck to them I say. I hope one or all of my kids will one day get to do the same. If they don’t I’ll still be just as proud.
Having led a non-academic life, I have long ceased to worry about such things and have never signed off as a degree holder; nor, to my knowledge, have my children. Indeed, in such circumstances, I can't think why anyone would.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,618
Received 293 Likes
on
161 Posts
nobody has a clue what an M.Litt is
Treadders BA (Bugger All)
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
it was the alliterative similarity to Hell, Hull and . . .
Yorkshire is fair game for banter in Lincolnshire. Apologies to Mrs CS should she have been offended. As an aside, we once congratulated a French waiter on his perfectly idiomatic English, he proudly told us he had learnt it at 'alifax.
Yorkshire is fair game for banter in Lincolnshire. Apologies to Mrs CS should she have been offended. As an aside, we once congratulated a French waiter on his perfectly idiomatic English, he proudly told us he had learnt it at 'alifax.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
We were once asked to sell our orchard to a 'developer' who wanted to reserve the right to buy a section of land at the back of 6 houses. His letter head included irrelevant alphabet soup. I replied in kind and enjoyed trumping his.
His bid failed as the 7th house was owned by Clr . . . MBE
His bid failed as the 7th house was owned by Clr . . . MBE
As one of Beags's compatriots, I took the RAF option of "any degree subject" from the Towers and realising that a medical degree was obviously out of the question, dived in to Human Biology -quite apposite as it was at Chelsea College London in the late "swinging" 60's. One of our number went and did "Hotel Management"(obviously with dreams of being a PMC) another ,who went on to Air Rank , later intimated that he got a First (he didn't even get a Second) .
Unusually, I subsequently found myself back in London (City University) doing a Post-Grad.year M.Phil. in Visual Perception, a.k.a. Psycho-physics ( courtesy of the RAF) which I later suspected was a device to head me off from going to another "five eyes'" Air Force, with whom I was in informal discussion.
Was my degree useful?
For personal progression in the R.A.F., at the time , in my adopted Branch: No (far from it -we were seen as "Threats" by many one rank up): "We have to stop them Gary, they are catching us up fast!" (overheard). The thus ensuing apparently anomalous 1369's being discussed among some of our ilk.
Barnwood was clueless: "Nobody tells us what you do. We don't know ". Certain Branch "Walts" , it later transpired, had gone down and given them their self-inflated versions of proceedings!. (two of whom (at least) were later "tumbled" and quietly eased out of the business)
For the purposes of the R.A.F.:
Yes (for example in the Human Factors aspects of aircraft accident investigation).*Although of course the justification for the Degree programme was to merely indicate intellectual capability.
For personal development,
Inestimable.
As a postscript, in the mid 70's I worked out an application for a special fit on a Puma which ,with a slightly bold mission, would be of great interest to some in the Int Community. After some trials, I was dispatched to Odiham and then summoned to brief the Station Commander.
;"Thank you your briefing Haraka, which is the only one I have understood and tend to believe. I have had four so far this week from officers claiming it as their own idea-and yours is by far from the most Junior."
As for the Falklands and the first Gulf War.......
One of our number went and did "Hotel Management"(obviously with dreams of being a PMC) another ,who went on to Air Rank , later intimated that he got a First (he didn't even get a Second) .Unusually, I subsequently found myself back in London (City University) doing a Post-Grad.year M.Phil. in Visual Perception, a.k.a. Psycho-physics ( courtesy of the RAF) which I later suspected was a device to head me off from going to another "five eyes'" Air Force, with whom I was in informal discussion.
Was my degree useful?
For personal progression in the R.A.F., at the time , in my adopted Branch: No (far from it -we were seen as "Threats" by many one rank up): "We have to stop them Gary, they are catching us up fast!" (overheard). The thus ensuing apparently anomalous 1369's being discussed among some of our ilk.
Barnwood was clueless: "Nobody tells us what you do. We don't know ". Certain Branch "Walts" , it later transpired, had gone down and given them their self-inflated versions of proceedings!. (two of whom (at least) were later "tumbled" and quietly eased out of the business)
For the purposes of the R.A.F.:
Yes (for example in the Human Factors aspects of aircraft accident investigation).*Although of course the justification for the Degree programme was to merely indicate intellectual capability.
For personal development,
Inestimable.
As a postscript, in the mid 70's I worked out an application for a special fit on a Puma which ,with a slightly bold mission, would be of great interest to some in the Int Community. After some trials, I was dispatched to Odiham and then summoned to brief the Station Commander.
;"Thank you your briefing Haraka, which is the only one I have understood and tend to believe. I have had four so far this week from officers claiming it as their own idea-and yours is by far from the most Junior."
As for the Falklands and the first Gulf War.......
Last edited by Haraka; 8th Jul 2018 at 14:54.
About 15 years ago, we stopped at the 13thC Masons Arms, Knowstone, when it was a fine old Devonshire country pub (it's now a Michelin-starred gastropub). Mine host (since moved on) was something of a character and he gave me his card when we left. He had some intriguing post-nominals - UAA and CRAFT.
UAA decoded as Unencumbered by Academic Achievement and CRAFT was Can't Remember A Flippin' Thing.
UAA decoded as Unencumbered by Academic Achievement and CRAFT was Can't Remember A Flippin' Thing.
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: In the State of Denial
Posts: 1,077
Likes: 0
Received 146 Likes
on
28 Posts
When I was a UAS QFI at a certain grass airfield in Nottinghamshire the Boss wouldn't permit the inclusion of postnominals on our office door name plates because we all had them & he didn't. We all had 2 made up, with & without, we all put up the former as a farewell tribute on his last day. If he noticed he didn't say.
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Banished (twice) to the pointless forest
Posts: 1,558
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Agreed, airpolice, but there was a very doleful bloodhound that appeared at time, as "BA Calcutta (failed)". I believe it was a reference, in those un-PC times, to the fact that getting to university was an achievement in the sub-Continent, even if you didn't graduate.
Herod BA (hon) UoL
Herod BA (hon) UoL
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Cambridge
Age: 55
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts