(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.....

Because that is the full honorific. And Huddersfield tells a whole different story. 😈

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

The 'Hons' bit is part of the degree title and to show what you achieved. Either one did the extra modules to get an Honours Degree or one didn't and 'only' receives an ordinary degree but I agree that adding Cantab or Oxon or whatever is simply showing off.

CS
BA (Hons) Govt, Somewhere unimportant

Could you explain please?

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

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.

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

She has got rocks?

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

Such a difference, if evident, would also be a worrying commentary on standardisation. A first degree, hons or not, is a Level 6 qual. All degrees should reflect that.

CG

Aerocrat....
 

Back in 'aerocrat' :yuk: 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!)

I can put three letters and a star after my name, but never have and never will.

It reflects something professional and betters an Hons in underwater basket weaving.

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. :D

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....

Which inevitably reminds me of the young officer who proudly announced that he had a degree in marine biology and was promptly put in charge of underwater hull cleaning!

Jack
BA (Hons)(Failed) in Applied Psychology at the University of HK**

** No, not Hong Kong - the University of Hard Knocks