University Degrees

[leathalmon]

Does anyone know the difference between a MSc, and MSci and a specific degree title, (e.g. MPharm for Pharmacy)??? Is there a central place that explain all degree titles, ie. BSc, BA, BEng, MA, MEng, MSc, MMedSci, etc, etc. thanks!

[Sylday]

For some unexplained reason, universities now seem to be using the abbreviation "MSci" for Master of Science, rather than the traditional MSc. There's a good Wikipedia article on Masters' degrees, including a list of abbreviations, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master's_degree

[Sylday]

Having myself now looked more closely at the Wikipedia article, I now see that MSci is used for what is called an Undergraduate Master, who has completed a 4 year undergraduate course. MSc is still used for the degree resulting from a post-graduate course, taken after the recipient has obtained a Bachelor's degree.

[morg_monster]

My undergraduate maths degree was 4 years long and I got a MMath (master of mathematics), some of my friends did a 4 year chemistry undergrad degree, they got an MSci. BEng is the result of a 3 yr engineering bachelors degree, if you do the 4th year you have an MEng. If you're interested, having one of these 'M' undergraduate degrees isn't equivalent to having a 3 year BSc plus an MSc. The 4th year is the same length as the first 3 years, ie 38 weeks (i think), not a full 52 week year like a postgraduate MSc or MA. The main point of these degrees is for students who are interested in a career in academia, often having a MMath or MSci means they don't have to do a postgraduate masters before starting their PhD. This saves them some time and often money too as funding can be hard to come by for postgrad masters, and you don't get a loan with a very low interest rate like you do when you're an undergrad. I think that this trend towards undergraduate masters is so far limited to the scientific subjects. sorry if this has bored you!

[leathalmon]

thanks for all the information, youve answered the question perfectly - this is exactly what I wanted to know. I'm about to start a 4 year undergraduate masters course in Pharmacology which has the title "MPharmacol(Hons)". Not exactly an impressive title!! Pharmacol is hardly an abbrevation for pharmacology.only 3 letters less! Thanks again