What is an honours degree?

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I've been really confused as to what an honours degree is. What does it actually mean when it says "BSc Hons"?

Usually because it involves an empirical dissertation in the social sciences. It may mean something different in other disciplines.

As far as I recall, an honours degree requires an in depth dissertation to be written alongside the usual exams and essays.

It means that on top of a three year degree course and passing the exams that were set then the person has also written a dissertation (an independently researched piece of work, usually 10 - 15,000 words long) to gain the Honours part.

Which bit do you not understand?

Bsc would be Bachelor of Science alluding to the subjects studied..

Honours would refer to the grade so higher than a pass degree (55% I think)

I did a honours degree that required me to do primary research (dissertation)! I loved it & is more interesting. I managed to get a 1st because I loved the depth of the researcher so did well!

Honours degrees are often standard in the UK. E.g a three or four year course with assessments and a dissertation/research project in the final year. They're classed as 1st class with honours, 2.1, 2.2 etc.

Without honours is sometimes called an ordinary degree and a pass/fail. There are other classifications if students fail their degree or drop out after two years etc and they sometimes get certificates or diplomas of higher education but wouldn't get the BA, BSc, BEd (Hons) etc.

None of the above is quite right. It's supposed to be a higher academic standard or more rigorous than an 'ordinary' degree. In practice, these days pretty much all degree courses are structured as honours degrees, so that is now the norm and an 'ordinary' degree might be awarded if you don't pass enough credits to get the full honours degree. You don't necessarily have to do a dissertation or a research project, so the difference is the number of credits achieved at honours level.

As others said, it's not the grade, it's a dissertation. My honours dissertation took a year, so it was like doing a mini Masters.

This is how my degree was structured.

I’ve got a BA Hons. I didn’t do a dissertation.

At a basic level, you get a degree if you study 300 “points”. Honours comes from studying (and passing) 360.

Same.

I don't think it's always been this way though. Degrees now default to honours unless someone fails final exams and may be given an ordinary degree. But, thinking about my parent who went to university in the 50s, they failed one/some first year exams and then were not allowed to progress to an honours degree. I don't think that was that unusual then.

I have a BA hons in maths, no dissertation required.

Honours has nothing to do with the pass grade.

I’ve always understood an honors degree to be a three year degree plus an additional period with a focus on a specific ‘major’ (usually a year or two). What you do in that extra year or two I can’t be sure.

I've got a BEng Hons - I seem to remember that if you got a low enough grade (maybe a 3rd, maybe below) then you just got the BEng, not a whole BEng Hons.

Mine was a long time ago but I seem to remember it was called an honours degree because it was completed in three straight years with no breaks. That’s a simplistic explanation but I think that’s how it was described. My son has an honours degree and I don’t remember him doing a dissertation. He just sat finals the same as me

The university I went to over 30 years ago only awarded honours degrees, apart from in exceptional circumstances.
I certainly did not do a dissertation to get it. I believe you could get a ‘pass’ degree or something called an aegrotat if you’d been ill etc.

I have a BA joint honours and no dissertation

My DD just finished economics at LSE this year. Awaiting for final year grades.

I've just been wondering what it means when it's an honours Vs a non-honours degree. I understand 1st Vs 2.1 Vs 22 Vs 3rd

Some unis have honours in the title. Some don't.

I believe it's a historical relic. A degree with honours was something special. In modern times pretty much all batchelor degrees are with honours.

In Scotland it wS decided at the end of second year if you could progress to honours - 3rd and 4th year, with dissertation in arts degrees. Otherwise you went on to just do 3rd year to complete an ordinary. Some are still an ordinary degree eg paramedic science I think.

Same I was really confused reading some of these replies.