The short answer: An honours degree means different things in different systems. In England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Ontario, honours marks the fuller bachelor’s degree, as opposed to an ordinary or general one. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, honours is usually an extra year of advanced study with research, taken after a bachelor’s. In the United States, honors is a distinction for high grades or extra work, noted on your record, not a separate degree.
A false friend inside one language
Language teachers warn about false friends: words that look alike in two languages but mean different things, like the French actuellement and the English actually. “Honours” is rarer. It is a false friend inside a single language.
Picture three hypothetical graduates applying for the same job in Singapore. One studied in England and writes “BSc (Hons).” One studied in Australia and writes “Bachelor of Science (Honours).” One studied in the United States and writes “BS with honors (cum laude).” All three are telling the truth. The first means a full standard degree, the second a degree plus a year of research, the third grades in the top slice of the class.
The recruiter brings a fourth reading. At the National University of Singapore, for example, honours classes apply to the longer 160-unit degree programs, graded from Honours (Highest Distinction) down to Honours, while 120-unit programs lead to a plain bachelor’s.
Meaning one: the full degree, not the lighter one
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a bachelor’s degree with honours, as in BA (Hons), needs at least 360 credits, with at least 90 at level 6, the top undergraduate level. Full-time study usually takes three years, and the degree is classified, from First-class honours down to a Third. According to QAA, the UK’s quality body, an Ordinary degree needs at least 300 credits and is not classified. The UK government lists both at level 6. The difference is volume, not level.
Ireland draws the line more sharply. Its national framework puts the Honours Bachelor Degree at level 8 and the Ordinary Bachelor Degree a level lower, at 7. Ontario uses the word much as England does: its honours bachelor’s runs eight semesters or more and normally includes a supervised research paper, thesis or project.
Scotland: where the first two meanings meet
A Scottish honours degree sits at SCQF level 10, with at least 480 credits, and typically takes four years. The ordinary degree sits at level 9, with at least 360 credits. At the University of Edinburgh’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology, for example, every fourth-year student writes a dissertation of up to 12,000 words.
That research-heavy final year looks very like what Australia sells as a separate honours degree. Yet QAA’s comparison table puts the four-year Scottish honours degree in the same row as the three-year English one. So 360 credits make an ordinary degree in Scotland and can make an honours degree in England.
Meaning two: an extra year of research
In Australia, the Bachelor Honours Degree is a qualification of its own, at level 8 of the Australian Qualifications Framework, one level above the standard bachelor’s. It is typically one year of full-time study after a bachelor’s, though it can be built into a longer program. At the University of Wollongong, the honours project is a substantial, independent thesis, creative project or research report.
New Zealand is similar: NZQA describes a 120-credit honours degree after a bachelor’s, or a longer degree, normally with at least 30 credits of research. So is South Africa. Its Bachelor Honours Degree is a postgraduate qualification at level 8, worth at least 120 credits and typically taken after a bachelor’s. It must include at least 30 credits of supervised research and opens the way to a master’s.
Watch the class labels. Under one of Wollongong’s calculation methods, Class I starts at 85 percent. In the UK, a First usually starts at 70.
Meaning three: a compliment on your grades
In the United States, honors does not create a different degree. The best-known form is Latin honors: cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude. Each university sets the rules. The University of Maryland gives them to the top 10 percent of graduates in each college, while Vanderbilt University’s three bands reach roughly the top quarter.
Departmental honors blur the line. At Lafayette College, for example, they rest on a senior thesis judged by a committee of at least three: research, but inside a normal four-year degree.
Which honours is yours? Then translate it
- Part of a UK, Irish or Ontario degree title, or a longer NUS-style degree, often with a class? The full degree.
- A separate year after a bachelor’s, or a longer Australian or New Zealand degree, built around research? Research honours.
- A Latin phrase or a note on a US transcript? A distinction.
Then add the one fact the word does not carry across borders:
- UK honours: “BSc (Hons), Upper Second-Class (2:1), three years full time, 360 UK credits at level 6.”
- Scottish degrees: “Four-year honours degree with dissertation, SCQF level 10.”
- Australian, New Zealand or South African honours: “BSc (Honours): one-year research honours with thesis, level 8,” plus your class or grade.
- US Latin honors: “BA, magna cum laude (top X percent under my university’s rule),” or add your GPA and scale.
Our degree title decoder compares the common titles and levels.
The bottom line
Never let the word travel alone. A reader abroad may hear their own meaning of honours, not yours. So add the fact that settles it: the credits and length of a full degree, the year and thesis of research honours, or the rule behind a distinction. One extra line on your CV turns a false friend into a true one.
Data box: what “honours” signals, by system
| System | What it signals |
|---|---|
| England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ontario, Singapore (NUS) | The fuller bachelor’s; classified in the UK and at NUS |
| Ireland | Honours bachelor’s at NFQ level 8; ordinary at level 7 |
| Scotland | Four-year degree at SCQF level 10 |
| Australia, New Zealand, South Africa | An extra research year at level 8 |
| United States | A distinction for grades or a thesis, not a degree |
Source: QAA; SCQF; QQI; Government of Ontario; NUS; AQF via University of Wollongong; NZQA; South Africa HEQSF. As of October 2026.
Sources
- QAA, The Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies (2024); GOV.UK, What qualification levels mean.
- SCQF Partnership, Interactive Framework; University of Edinburgh, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, How our degrees work.
- QQI, A brief guide to the Irish National Framework of Qualifications; Government of Ontario, Ontario Qualifications Framework.
- National University of Singapore, Registrar’s Office, Transcript information and grade legend.
- University of Wollongong, Honours Policy; NZQA, Bachelor Honours Degree; Department of Higher Education and Training (South Africa), Bachelor Honours Degree (HEQSF type specification).
- University of Maryland and Vanderbilt University registrars, Latin Honors; Lafayette College, Honors Requirements.
- Cambridge Dictionary, “false friend.”