So I'm a final year CS (specialising in data science) student at Monash Malaysia. I am definitely interested in postgraduate research and getting a PhD. From my understanding, one would need a Masters (by research) to apply for a PhD, or fast-track with a Bachelor's degree with Honours).

My degree does not have Honours as it is Aussie style, where Honours is an additional research year which you can opt in. This differs from many other local unis where Honours are embedded/integrated into the degree.

This where I start getting questions:
1) Do all supervisors/unis accept Bachelors with Honours for PhD while skipping Masters?
2) If my end goal is PhD, would an Honours degree save time and money over a Masters? I am currently under JPA sponsorship, so I am gonna try my luck asking them to cover my Honours year as well.
3) If I end up just pursuing a Masters by coursework, will that be sufficient to seek a PhD?
4) Do the answers to the above questions vary country by country (eg. Australia, UK, etc.)

And just out of curiosity, do unis/employers see Aussie-style Honours differently from Malaysian-style integrated Honours degrees? Does the latter have a major research component with dissertation/thesis? I didn't do too much research into these things before choosing Monash.

Pretty much a question, which a PhD holder would ask an aspiring PhD candidate.

I would say most would wanna rush, just for the degree, which imo pretty waste of time. It doesn't bring any value actually.

Grades,well, is a factor, but does not dictate how well you will perform as a PhD student. I have seen too many drop outs