(Hons)
Thread Starter
(Hons)
Why do senior commanders deem it necessary to include (Hons) after their degree? What possible relevance does this have? And why do some even add (Cantab) or (Oxon) as well? I think we should be told, after all, I haven't seen any BA (Huddersfield), for example.....
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Because that is the full honorific. And Huddersfield tells a whole different story. 😈
Good question, Oxford’s a complete dump! Not so sure about Huddersfield, but Hull maybe.
In all seriousness a couple of semi-sensible suggestions:
The (Hons) thing is potentially to differentiate between those who didn’t actually make the standard for an Honours degree (takes some doing!) or potentially because they weren’t enrolled on an Hons course to start with. I suspect is has less relevance here than somewhere like the US where graduating ‘with Honours’ is actually a big thing not everyone achieves.
The Oxon, Cantab thing is either sheer pretentiousness or alternatively if seen as MA (Oxon) reflects the fact that Oxford and Cambridge used to upgrade their Bachelor qualifications to Masters Level a number of years after graduating, without you having to do any extra work compared to a proper postgrad Masters qualification achieved after an extra year on a specific academic programme. I’ve always taken MA (Oxon) to be more honorific.
However, a senior Commander with just a standard MA suggests someone who skipped university and ended up getting posted to staff college and got an MA for being the ‘right sort’ rather than academically inclined (as suggested by an old Boss in that very position)
Melchett BSc(Hons) MSc (not Oxon, Cantab, or Dunelm!),
In all seriousness a couple of semi-sensible suggestions:
The (Hons) thing is potentially to differentiate between those who didn’t actually make the standard for an Honours degree (takes some doing!) or potentially because they weren’t enrolled on an Hons course to start with. I suspect is has less relevance here than somewhere like the US where graduating ‘with Honours’ is actually a big thing not everyone achieves.
The Oxon, Cantab thing is either sheer pretentiousness or alternatively if seen as MA (Oxon) reflects the fact that Oxford and Cambridge used to upgrade their Bachelor qualifications to Masters Level a number of years after graduating, without you having to do any extra work compared to a proper postgrad Masters qualification achieved after an extra year on a specific academic programme. I’ve always taken MA (Oxon) to be more honorific.
However, a senior Commander with just a standard MA suggests someone who skipped university and ended up getting posted to staff college and got an MA for being the ‘right sort’ rather than academically inclined (as suggested by an old Boss in that very position)
Melchett BSc(Hons) MSc (not Oxon, Cantab, or Dunelm!),
An Honours Degree is a higher qualification than a Pass degree involving a longer period of study and a higher achievement standard, so the general practice for post-nominals (not just "senior military commanders") is to include "BSc(hons)" where it's been earned. It's not really any different to using "MSc" rather than "BSc" when you have a masters degree (which involves a different kind of study, a minimum original research content and a higher academic attainment) compared to a bachelors degree. The genera; convention is also that you only include one degree (the highest or most recent depending on preference) in your post-nominals, so my BSc(hons) has given way to my MSc. You do sometimes see "MSc(dist)", but that's just pretentious wankage with no official status in which people are trying to emphasise that they achieved a distinction grade in their masters. I don't feel the need, probably because my distinction didn't come as a surprise...(
)
Graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter and Durham have degrees with the latinised style of their name incorporated into the Degree title in accordance with their charters because they are the oldest four universities in the country. Why this stopped at four is not clear, except that they were the *only* universities for quite a long time. This you get MA(Oxon), MA(Cantab), MSc(Exon) or MSc(Dunelm) respectively.
The charters of later universities do not include this provision.
Well you did ask...
PDR MSc(not cantab, oxon, exon or dunelm) C.Eng MIET
)Graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter and Durham have degrees with the latinised style of their name incorporated into the Degree title in accordance with their charters because they are the oldest four universities in the country. Why this stopped at four is not clear, except that they were the *only* universities for quite a long time. This you get MA(Oxon), MA(Cantab), MSc(Exon) or MSc(Dunelm) respectively.
The charters of later universities do not include this provision.
Well you did ask...
PDR MSc(not cantab, oxon, exon or dunelm) C.Eng MIET
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Green and pleasant land
Posts: 658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
CS
BA (Hons) Govt, Somewhere unimportant
To quote Tom Holt: "That sounds like one of those famous oxymorons like 'Military Intelligence' or 'the University of Hull'."
ie I suggest it was a bit of good-natured banter.
PDR
ie I suggest it was a bit of good-natured banter.
PDR
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Green and pleasant land
Posts: 658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It might have been intended thus but IMNSHO not terribly funny. Especially as SWMBO has just worked her rocks off to get her Masters.. at Hudds.
Let’s face facts chaps. When most of us on here went to uni, around 2% of the population achieved that status. These days, with degrees in Camera Studies, Trampolining, Grass Cutting and Nasal Hair Trimming, every bod can go. Most of them are worth nothing at all, although the deluded fools taking them seem to think they are the gateway to riches. I got (Hons), I cant remember what for, but back then it meant something and people could tell the wheat from the chaff, unlike now.
I'm sure no insult was intended, but it is true that a degree from oxbridge is a course which is harder to get onto and much harder to graduate with than one from most other universities in the UK.
But on the other hand "MA(cantab)" is actually a warning that the holder hasn't done a proper Masters, but merely remained alive fro two years and paid an additional fee sence graduating with a BA(cantab).
PDR
But on the other hand "MA(cantab)" is actually a warning that the holder hasn't done a proper Masters, but merely remained alive fro two years and paid an additional fee sence graduating with a BA(cantab).
PDR
Dog Tired
Harder to get onto, but I have never seen anything that suggests the courses at Oxbridge are actually tougher than those at a load of other high end universities. I've certainly met very few engineering graduates from either university who were as good as most Russell Group graduates in the same subjects.
I do recall the fun some years back when Oxford had played fast and loose so much with the syllabus of their engineering degrees that the Engineering Council removed them the list of accredited courses for the award of Chartered Engineer. That was entertaining to watch from the sidelines. Some of us went to university to study a subject (in my case, fairly obviously, engineering) rather than go to the "right" university!
Non honours courses are fairly common outside the UK just not here. Ireland commonly awards "plain" BEng or BSc degrees, with Honours being another year - Australia as well I believe. The differences tend to be particularly of the more advanced topics and dissertation that prove the graduate's ability to work independently.
G
CEng BEng(Hons) PhD
I do recall the fun some years back when Oxford had played fast and loose so much with the syllabus of their engineering degrees that the Engineering Council removed them the list of accredited courses for the award of Chartered Engineer. That was entertaining to watch from the sidelines. Some of us went to university to study a subject (in my case, fairly obviously, engineering) rather than go to the "right" university!
Non honours courses are fairly common outside the UK just not here. Ireland commonly awards "plain" BEng or BSc degrees, with Honours being another year - Australia as well I believe. The differences tend to be particularly of the more advanced topics and dissertation that prove the graduate's ability to work independently.
G
CEng BEng(Hons) PhD
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Often in Jersey, but mainly in the past.
Age: 79
Posts: 7,812
Received 137 Likes
on
64 Posts
To my annoyance, they didn’t introduce the Bracknell MA until after I’d done the ASC. I did wonder whether I could ask to do the additional module retrospectively, but decided ICBA.
MPN11, O-Levels [Oxon]
MPN11, O-Levels [Oxon]
Would anyone really want to put Dunelm after their name these days when 99% of the population know Dunelm as a value soft furnishings chain rather than an ancient educational institution?
CG
Aerocrat....
Back in 'aerocrat' 
times, the RAF didn't really care what degree you were reading. We were encouraged to bail out of Towers to seek university entry. Which seemed like an excellent idea at the time when one was 'enjoying' the bull$hit of 'crowing' and living in the South Brick Lines...
More interest in Chipmunking than Aero Eng at QMC (which seemed to have very little to do with aircraft - just hard sums and taking down copious notes from professors who were useless teachers) meant that I had to repeat a year, but this had the benefit of coinciding with a point in history when the overwhelming majority of graduates from the JP course were streamed Fast Jet, rather than just the top 2 or 3 from a course of about a dozen. Otherwise I'm sure I would never have had the fun of flying the Gnat and Hunter!
BEagle BSc(Eng) (Lon) (just scraped a pass!)
times, the RAF didn't really care what degree you were reading. We were encouraged to bail out of Towers to seek university entry. Which seemed like an excellent idea at the time when one was 'enjoying' the bull$hit of 'crowing' and living in the South Brick Lines...More interest in Chipmunking than Aero Eng at QMC (which seemed to have very little to do with aircraft - just hard sums and taking down copious notes from professors who were useless teachers) meant that I had to repeat a year, but this had the benefit of coinciding with a point in history when the overwhelming majority of graduates from the JP course were streamed Fast Jet, rather than just the top 2 or 3 from a course of about a dozen. Otherwise I'm sure I would never have had the fun of flying the Gnat and Hunter!
BEagle BSc(Eng) (Lon) (just scraped a pass!)
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
If I want to impress someone with my academic record, I truthfully tell them that I was in the top 99 percent of my class.
Fortunately, most people can't figure out that this just means that I wasn't in the bottom one percent.
Fortunately, most people can't figure out that this just means that I wasn't in the bottom one percent.
Jack
BA (Hons)(Failed) in Applied Psychology at the University of HK**
** No, not Hong Kong - the University of Hard Knocks