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[monsterx]

I am writing a recommendation letter for a soon-to-graduate MA student, who wants to go to Australia for a PhD.  He has a variety of reasons for doing that, none of which make much sense, but he's so good, I figure he'll probably do ok whereever he goes. 

I have to fill out this on-line recommendation form for him which askes whether he has a "first-class honours degree".  Since I don't know what that is, I figured I'd just tick "no" but then the next question is "will he get one soon", and it looks like if he doesn't have one he should.   So should I tick "yes" because we only have one class of MA degree and so that's by definition the first class? 

[dizietsma]

Hey there monsterx,

An honours year is a fourth year of a bachelor's degree. It is not available to all students- traditionally those with all or mostly marks above 80% were invited to undertake an honours year. For almost all disciplines it consists of half advanced coursework, and half research thesis of about 10 to 15 thou words. Law is an exception, I think, where coursework alone may comprise an honours year.

The "class" of honours awarded is the assessment or mark- first class would be awarded to those with a mark of either 80 percent or above, or 90 percent or above, depending on the University.

A first class honours degree or a Masters by research is considered appropriate entry qualitification for a PhD. For students without an Australian honours degree it is likely that the admitting School or Faculty will want to read and assess the research thesis, or a part thereof.

[monsterx]

Hey there monsterx,
An honours year is a fourth year of a bachelor's degree. It is not available to all students- traditionally those with all or mostly marks above 80% were invited to undertake an honours year. For almost all disciplines it consists of half advanced coursework, and half research thesis of about 10 to 15 thou words. Law is an exception, I think, where coursework alone may comprise an honours year.
The "class" of honours awarded is the assessment or mark- first class would be awarded to those with a mark of either 80 percent or above, or 90 percent or above, depending on the University.
A first class honours degree or a Masters by research is considered appropriate entry qualitification for a PhD. For students without an Australian honours degree it is likely that the admitting School or Faculty will want to read and assess the research thesis, or a part thereof.

Thanks, looks like I have to tick "no" and explain in the text box.