[xiankai]

what do u call them? undergraduates, or what? just wondering

[movies]

It depends exactly what you do.  I think that a lot of people list it on their resume as a "graduate student research assistant" (or undergrad, if that is the case).

[Mitch]

Grad Students have to do research, undergraduates don't.

[mike]

Here they are: honours, Masters, or PhD.  All Post Graduate students.

[constant thinker]

Honors? Is that some type of degree? I know that Masters and PhD are degrees.

[Donaldson Tan]

Honours in the UK represents grade classification

I think some univerisities offer an additional one-year honours program for students who has done very well academically.

[mike]

Yeah, here you can do a three year B.Sc, then if you qualify you can do a 1 year honours degree, which is mostly research based but does include some coursework and exams etc. I am not sure why it is a separate degree but I did get a separate degree certificate when I finished it (ie I had a degree certificate for B.Sc and then I got another one for honours). Then M.Sc is 2 years of research work, or Ph.D is 3 years (you do one or the other, not usually both), so in 7 years you can have B.Sc + honours + Ph.D. or in 5/6 years you can have B.Sc + honours + M.Sc

[lemonoman]

At the University of Waterloo, there is NO 3-year chemistry program.  And the only chemistry program we do offer is called "Honours".  No general degree here

Back on topic, we HAVE to do an 8-month, part-time (~10 hrs/week) research project and hand in a finla report to graduate from this "Honours" program.

[mike]

Our B.Sc is a general science degree, although these days they are adding all sorts of names to the general degree (forensic, analytical, nanotech, etc. you get the idea). When I did it I did courses: 1st year; chem, physics, geology, biology 2nd: chem, biochem 3rd: organic chem, physical chem, inorganic chem. So by third year  I was majoring in chemistry, but could have just as easily chosen any other major I guess. Honours was definetly inorganic chem for me.

[Borek]

In Poland you do MSc (or rather its equivalent - mgr) when you finish university (or academy, or technical university - these are all called high schools, but they are obviously much higher then HS ), then you may do PhD. Perhaps it has changed in the last 25 years, but AFAIK you can't do PhD without MSc.

BSc (or its equivalent) is relatively new, 10 years ago there was no such degree, only MSc and PhD.

[Donaldson Tan]

Although the UK MSc is an undergraduate degree, it qualifies for direct entry into PhD programs in the UK, Europe and USA.