The undergraduate degrees are called bachelor’s degrees in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and most of them take only three years of full time to complete, and are awarded as honours degrees, indicated by ‘(Hons)’ after the degree abbreviation. However, in Scotland, it takes three years to complete an ordinary degree and four years to gain honours. Confusingly, some Scottish undergraduate degrees are sometimes awarded with the title ‘master’s’.
There are 159 universities and colleges in the UK are authorised to award degrees, but more than 700 colleges and institutions offer courses that can lead to a degree. A wide range of undergraduate courses are available for students that offer a huge amount of choices and flexibility. An undergraduate degree gives students a thorough grounding in a subject or field. Some institutions also offer students to study two or more subjects in a combined or joint honours degree.
On successful completion of the subjects studied, the students will be awarded a bachelor degree as followings:
- BA (Bachelor of Arts),
- BSc (Bachelor of Science),
- LLB (Bachelor of Laws), or
- BEng (Bachelor of Engineering), etc
Undergraduate medical education in the UK is highly competitive. Courses last five or six years, and students graduate as a Bachelor of Medicine or Bachelor of Surgery after successful completion of the courses.
International students are required to demonstrate English language skills with International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to a minimum score of IELTS 6.0 to 6.5 or an equivalent. Students will also be subject to student visa and immigration requirements. Many universities in the UK offer foundation courses for international students to help bridging any gap from their home country in order to entering to a UK university.
Though university rankings are highly regarded by Chinese students, we advise our students to look beyond the university rankings and look in details of the particular course offered at a particular university. Because the reputation of most universities in the UK is subject-based, apart from some exceptional universities, such as Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, UCL, and Imperial. Check it out below the latest UK university and subject rankings, and how we can help.