what is it use for ? if dont have will it hurt job chances ?

I heard from my lecturer that without honours will somehow have problem in doing Post-Grad studies in certain Universities.

From what I understand, Degree without Honours are equilavent to Advance/Higher Diploma, While with Honours completes the Degree itself.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Somewhat un-important to private companies.

But quite important to the Singapore civil service. For. eg. the Singapore police pay 21% more for a cadet ASP with a 1st class compared to a pass degree. I've got a screenshot of the salary scale in the 2nd picture of this blogpost.

I think the same preference for honours degrees goes for the Malaysian civil service.

Vestiges of the British bureaucratic system, I think.

Anyway, not all honours are the same.

UK awards honours degrees on your performance.

Aust awards it on how long you study for your degree. But Aust awards degrees with distinction based on performance.

Your lecturer is talking rubbish.

What about US degrees? For that matter what about non-UK or Australian degrees? They don't have a honours system.

Nothing special when you work with private. but all my uni friends (inc me) have honor degree and we like to hon our car a lot; really a lot...

Having First Class Honours is cool.
Having Second Class Upper or Lower or Third Class Honours is not cool.

So do you want Honours degree?

Its is use by employers to shortlist candidates for 1st stage interviews. It might and might not hurt your chances as the big companies will definitely use it to shortlist candidates but the same cant be said for small to medium scale companies. But if you can study hard to obtain a certain honours degree it will only be to your advantage

as seantang mentioned, australian honours system is different from ours, which follows the british system. australian merits students who've completed their degree with distinction, allowing them to sit for a few extra credits (extending probably a semester or two), to get honours embedded on ur degree.

in british system, the honours is already embedded in the course even BEFORE u sit for it. so u know if u graduate with 2nd class lower, there is honours in the degree already embedded. what we have for top scorers are 1st class distinction, not 1st class honours.

what is the difference of honours & non-honours degrees in malaysia?

depth of study, duration and validity. this includes professional accreditations, for example, courses like architecture & law already have (hons) embedded in the degree. compared to non-honours degrees, which are relatively shorter, and more often called general degrees.

bcoz of a huge influx of australian graduates in msia, the term honours in the degree is often confused.

But then, most, if not all local uni and UK based degrees have honours with them regardless of the classes of those degrees. Eg: Bsc (Honours) in blahblahblah. Is it equilavent to Honours Degree in Australia?

usually employers already know the UK vs australian system of honours... that's why they always ask u to submit CGPA as well. unless u happen to apply to firms who're a bit slooowww...

I don't think there's much elaboration needed on the UK-Honours which most have spoken about.

As few have mentioned above, the Australian-Honours system is indeed different. An Australia-based student will need to complete an additional year before Honours is awarded to his degree but entry requirement into Honours is determined and offered to the student by the University [student decides if he wants to take it up but he's unable to pursue it if he's not been offered a place].

Generally, those who were offered membership into the 'Golden Key Club' would have secured themselves an Honours position in their universities.

Having said that, an Australian Honours is still classified as an undergraduate degree, and not a postgraduate degree.

This post has been edited by tinkerbel: Jan 8 2007, 05:58 PM

IMHO, it looks much, much better on the resume to get a distinction in one's Bachelor's degree in Australia and then spend that extra year getting a Masters (with distinction again, if possible) - compared to spending that extra year getting an Australian honours.

2 degrees beats one hands down.

This post has been edited by seantang: Jan 8 2007, 07:13 PM

seantang,
I agree wif u but if i remember my facts right, having completed the Honours degree, one can get straight into the uni's Masters program and do away with Year 1 or something like dat.

I didn't take that route as I didn't think it would've made much difference spending the additional RM80k on an undergrad program (even if it was an Honours) and thought it be best to just use the $ on a 2nd degree or a Masters, etc.

The exemption is for masters programs closely related to your honours degree only. If you want to do a Masters in Finance after you take a honours IT degree, for instance, you probably get no exemptions at all. But if you have a honours accounting degree, you'll get a whole lot of exemptions. And you'd probably still get considerable exemption with a non-honours accounting degree.

In any case, with summer school and extra loading of a couple of subjects per semester, you can complete a Masters within 12-18 months. So, the exemptions for the honours year is not a overly big deal.

This post has been edited by seantang: Jan 8 2007, 07:53 PM

seantang,
RM80k was gonna be the additional cost should I have accepted the uni's offer to do my Honours. Even with the additional scholarship or financial help given by the uni, it would have cost my poor struggling folks here RM80k for the additional year (oh btw, exchange rate was than 2.75)

Anyhow, that's the past and thus will look into the future now

True. Fees are expensive.

That's why I took a first degree sandwich program that included 13 months of full time work attached to a sponsoring employer. We were paid full pay at the going rate. I saved enough to pay for my final year fees, all my living expenses overseas and air tickets each summer. My folks only had to pay for my first 2 years of fees.

seantang,
You smart mah, I not that smart. Plus Ok, I lucky also lah. And besides, me FA-MA scholarship also covered uhm slightly more than 2 Years of fees onli mah :pPppPppPp.......

Eh, we're seriously going off topic here.. Let's uhm..... get outta here before we get 'screwed' !!

you could be right

TS, I hope we have answered ur question.....

seantang,
At the v least, I'm getting back on topic but stop responding or we're gonna go OFF THREAD again

I blow my chances of getting First Honours by failing a programming subject.

(T_T)

chibi_tenko,
It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it's just a piece of paper. It's your attitude at work that will take you up the corporate ladder

Not all qualified UK degree holders have honours qualification. Those who fail a paper in the final year will be allowed to graduate with only a general degree, without honours.

It's not a matter of whether an honours degree is more prestigious or not, which is a matter of perception. What's more important is whether your honours degree or lack of disqualifies you from membership of certain professional bodies or exams.

Law graduates with third class honours or lower are generally not alllowed to sit for the Bar exams. They may, however, take a separate exam and gain admission as solicitors (but not barristers).

Thanks for pointing out.

Forgot to mention our lecterur was refering to our twinning programme with UniSA. They offer 2 years Diploma in Malaysia, then final year at UniSA for Bachelor Degree without Honours. If we want Honours, we have to study 2 years at UniSA.

This post has been edited by morph: Jan 11 2007, 08:31 PM

morph,
Yes, to complete up to Honours at UniSA you will need to spend an additional year hence 1+1 = 2 years. But do know that NOT everyone who wants to do Honours can do it. You must be offered a place before you can take it up - look at it as a 'by invitation only' kinda thing

Huh?
Really? Why is that so? It depends on result?
Will the graduate who completed his Degree without Honours from UniSA will face problem in doing his Post Grad in future then ?

morph,

You need to score X% before u be offered a position to do your Honours. Honours is different from postgrad and is not a pre-requisite into a postgraduate programme so you don't need to worry.

how about local ones? I mean like for MMU courses, there are honours while the same course in UTAR may not have honours(correct me if i'm wrong). Is there a big difference?

Doing an honours degree in Australia is upon invitation only.

IpohBoY,
We have discussed this issue of Honours & No Honours at length within this thread. Please scroll up and read through before asking us the same questions over and over. Thanks!