Hi all,

I obtained a first class honours degree in law from a top Australian law school. Only top law students are invited to complete an honours thesis and they are each assigned a supervisor who will work with them one-on-one. My honours thesis was highly complex and dealt with the doctrine of mistake in contract law (an area which even Oxford law professor Ewan McKendrick described as 'an extremely difficult area of law': Ewan McKendrick, Contract Law (Palgrave, 11th ed) 52 [4.6]).

Getting first class honours in Australia is definitely a far cry from getting first class honours in the UK. In Australia, you have to be in the top 5-10 students (not percent; literally top 5-10 individuals) in some courses to get that shiny certificate with first class honours. In the UK, you only have to be in the top 10-20% of the cohort to get first-class honours and you graduate with honours simply if you're not thick.

In Australia, first class honours degrees are even more prestigious than masters degrees and qualify holders for prestigious PhD scholarships. One of my classmates who also achieved first class honours was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford!

To conclude, an Australian first class honours degree >>>>> a UK first class honours degree. Period.

This post has been edited by llbhons1: May 20 2017, 10:42 AM