Honours vs Non-Honours Degree: What’s The Difference?

What is an “Honours” Degree?

An honours degree typically refers to a higher level of academic achievement at an undergraduate level.

You can distinguish an honours degree by the presence of the word “Honours” or “Hons” in a qualification.

Examples include:

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) or BA (Hons)
Bachelor of Science (Honours) or BSc (Hons)
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) or BEng (Hons)
Bachelor of Laws (Honours) or LLB (Hons)

Conversely, a non-honours degree does not contain the word “Honours” or “Hons”. Some examples include:

Bachelor of Arts or BA
Bachelor of Science or BSc
Bachelor of Engineering or BEng
Bachelor of Laws or LLB

How Can You Obtain an Honours Degree?

Broadly, we can divide the universities into two segments — universities that only offer honours degrees and universities that offer both honours and non-honours degrees.

#1. Universities that only offer honours degrees

For universities under this umbrella, you will automatically receive a degree with honours unless you achieve a poor grade that is below the honours standard.

Some of the types of universities that practise this include:

UK universities with branch campuses in Malaysia (e.g. The University of Nottingham Malaysia, Heriot-Watt University Malaysia)
Malaysian institutions with 3+0 UK programmes (e.g. HELP’s 3+0 degrees with University of Derby, INTI’s 3+0 degrees with University of Hertfordshire)
A large number of Malaysian universities offering their own degrees (e.g. Taylor’s University, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), HELP University)

Typically, these universities follow the British format of degree classification and award degrees in the form of “First Class Honours”, “Upper Second Class Honours”, “Lower Second Class Honours” and “Third Class Honours”, where a “First Class Honours” indicates a highest level of academic achievement.

#2. Universities that offer both honours and non-honours degrees

To obtain an honours degree with universities under this umbrella, you will be required to spend 1 additional year in university after your undergraduate degree, usually to complete a major research project and to produce a high-quality research thesis. Entry into this 1-year honours course typically requires strong academic grades, especially in the third year of your undergraduate degree.

In Malaysia, only Australian universities with branch campuses in Malaysia practise this. Some examples of institutions include Monash University Malaysia, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus and Curtin University Sarawak Malaysia.

if you were to choose an Australian degree, then you may need to consider if you want to spend an additional year to undertake a year-long research project.

Taking an Australian honours will equip you additional research skills, allowing you to delve deeper into a specialised topic. This can be extremely useful if you want to pursue a PhD later on.

Edited by: 浪子

Bibliography

Natasha Sin. (2018). Honours vs Non-Honours Degree: What’s the Difference? Retrieved from
https://eduadvisor.my/articles/honours-vs-non-honours-degree-whats-the-difference/