Hi everyone,

I'm just having a 'what shall I do with my life?' moment. I am currently studying the foundation degree in Early Years through the OU. I'm looking at topping it up to a full degree if i ever complete it

Now I really don't want to offend anyone by my question, i genuinly don't know the answer, what is the point of topping up to a BA with honors, when people are looking for a degree qualification will they be interested if it is with honors or will a degree be sufficient. I am of course aware of the massive personal achievement of having a BA with honors but does it offer any other benefits. (I really need to question if I can do any kind of degree if I am having to ask this question )

Thanks

Rapunzel

BA with hons takes an extra year full time (according to my Uni son)

It used to be (and I think it still applies) an ordinary degree was awarded if the student passed but failed to gain enough marks for the hons award (honours degrees did require an extra year of study but don't think that applies any longer)

"The biggest distinction made is whether the degree is awarded with or without honours. Nowadays, nearly all candidates sit for honours; an ordinary (or pass) degree (i.e. a degree without honours) is usually awarded to a candidate who marginally fails the honours examination, or significant parts of it."

really it depends on how/if you want to progress after gaining your degree when I gained mine a friend failed her final year so was awarded an ordinary degree which at the time meant she couldn't gain QTS.

And can't you only get the "with hons" bit if you do a dissertation? I'm just ploughing my way through one presently!

At University of Reading when hali and I went on to top up our foundation degree to a full degree, we were offered the option of doing an ordinary degree which I think was another 60 points, with no dissertation. The idea was that you could graduate at this point, or continue on to an hours degree at a later date depending on your own requirements. Subsequently we were 'persuaded' to top up to an honours degree which gave us 120 points, which added another module and the dissertation, and an extra half day's study at uni.

It was all a long time ago now (or seems it) so I stand to be corrected. We topped up to honours and did the long pathway to EYPS in a year (with validation being added onto the year to complete the whole process). We attended part-time, although the degree itself was considered to be full-time because it is work-based. I'm fairly certain that the option of doing the ordinary degree wasn't offered again after our cohort, though.

In answer to your question Rapunzel, on the surface I'd say there isn't any difference to having an ordinary degree and an honours degree, apart from having the ability to have BA(Hons) at the end of your name if you so wish. However, the fact that you have carried out research and have gained the necessary extra points to obtain the honours degree might confer additional academic rigour/status on you when applying for a job, and certainly will if you're interested in taking your studies further. Although I appreciate at this stage that a Masters is probably not on your to do list!

How soon do you have to make this decision?

Maz

Hi everyone,

Thanks for getting back to me. I am in no rush to make this decision at the moment as I am still quite early on in the foundation degree, I was just wondering if there was much difference between the two. It all just seems to take so long. I am about a third through E115, just about to begin U212 and if all goes to plan will begin E215 in October. After these are finished I will (hopefully) have the foundation degree. Then I am torn between going to the long pathway for EYPS or topping up to Ba. If I top up to BA I then have to decide if I want to top up to BA with honors. My only problem is that the OU have introduced a time limit to complete all the courses so I can't really leave them and go back later as I did the first 2 courses back in 2007 then decided to have a break (before the time limit was introduced).

If I don't manage to tear myself away from the forum I will never get any of it done

To do EYPS you need a full degree, so you'll need to top up your degree alongside the long pathway Rapunzel, so perhaps you could talk to your EYPS provider about what your options are.

Maz

eek, I must have got confused, I thought the long pathway included topping up to a full degree. Oh well at least that is one decision made for me

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, Rapunzel. People with non-related degrees might also do a long pathway if they have limited experience, or need to gain experience of working with another age group.

Sorry to be pedantic: I just keep mentioning it because I worry that people reading might think you can do EYPS without having a full degree.

At least that's one thing you won't have to worry about then - my guess is that you'll top up to honours on the long pathway, but I'll be interested to hear what they advise when you get to that stage.

Maz

HI

I thought that the hons part was if you got say a 2.1 or a 1st in your grading at the end?

I completed a 3 year BEd (Hons) in primary education 10 years back now and didn't do any extra year on top but it was a more intensive course i got a Hons as i got a 2.1 so i thought thats why i got the hons? i didn't do a dissentation of any sort thank goodness.

Hi HappyMaz,

Really don't worry about being pedantic, I appreciate any advise that I am given Also to be honest I need it spelling out to me I'm getting so confused. Thanks again for your advise

Rapunzel

Those of us in our cohort who got a third still got an Honours degree - its the number of points that matters, I believe! I know that foundation degrees vary in content - some of my degree colleagues had never done a research project whereas we had, for instance. So perhaps full degrees are the same?

Maz

An honours degree can be a 1st, 2.1, 2.2 or a 3rd

Degree classification

The biggest distinction made is whether the degree is awarded with or without honours. Nowadays, nearly all candidates sit for honours; an ordinary (or pass) degree (i.e. a degree without honours) is usually awarded to a candidate who marginally fails the honours examination, or significant parts of it. A candidate who fails badly is usually allowed to retake the examination for a pass degree, as most universities prohibit such a student from receiving honours.

Most universities award a class of degree based on the average mark of the assessed work a candidate has completed. Below is a list of the possible classifications with common abbreviations. rough percentages for each class are also listed, these percentages vary between subjects and universities. Honours degrees are in bold:

* First-Class Honours (First or 1st) (70% and above) (OPEN UNIVERSITY 85%+)
* Upper Second-Class Honours (2:1, 2.i) (60-70%) (OPEN UNIVERSITY 70-85%)
* Lower Second-Class Honours (2:2, 2.ii) (50-60%) (OPEN UNIVERSITY 55-70%)
* Third-Class Honours (Third or 3rd) (40-50%) (OPEN UNIVERSITY 40-55%)
* Ordinary degree (pass) (OPEN UNIVERSITY AWARDED AT 300 CATS POINTS)
* Fail (no degree is awarded)
* Unclassified (some degrees aren't classified eg medicine or masters degree)

The system does allow for a small amount of discretion and candidates may be elevated up to the next degree class if their average mark is close and they have submitted many pieces of work worthy of the higher class. However, they may be demoted a class if they fail to pass all parts of the course even if they have a high average.

There are also variations between universities