Degrees of value
The three-year “Ordinary” degree was the norm in Scottish universities long before the four-year Honours degree was ever thought of, and when I was at secondary school in the 1960s I had teachers with Ordinary degrees, the only drawback being that they didn’t qualify you to be a head of department (PT in modern parlance).
I remember my middle-aged maths teacher being rather scathing about an honours graduate half his age who was parachuted in to take over the department when the former head retired.
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Hide AdThe three-year Ordinary MA, with its mix of arts subjects including compulsory philosophy (either Moral Philosophy or Logic & Metaphysics), was seen as a good academic grounding for lawyers and church ministers, who on graduating MA went on to take a further vocational degree.
Hence all the lawyers and ministers with MA, LLB (or BL) and MA, BD respectively after their names.
Harry D Watson
Braehead Grove
Edinburgh