So, what is a bachelor’s degree anyway? Let’s find out.
Updated: 15 Apr 2025A bachelor's degree is a type of undergraduate academic degree awarded by universities and colleges all around the world. It’s the most common undergraduate degree studied in the UK and is classified as a Level 6 qualification. You’ll typically study a single subject for the duration of the degree (although joint honours degrees are also an option), and courses usually last for three years. Getting a bachelor’s degree involves studying your chosen subject in great detail, encountering new ideas, and being assessed by a variety of methods from exams and coursework to presentations and performances.
Completing a bachelor’s degree can give you improved access to employment opportunities, higher long-term earning potential, and is commonly a prerequisite for enrolment on postgraduate degree courses.
In the UK, universities will typically ask you for a minimum of either four or five GCSEs at grade C or above, and three A-levels or equivalent.
Your offer will be based on the type of course, and competitiveness of the university you are applying to. Examples of an offers might be something like BBC, or ABB. Bear in mind that in addition to getting the grades, many degree courses also ask for one or more of your A-level subjects to be relevant to your chosen degree course, since there is often a lot of required knowledge before classes begin.
NEXT: Certain courses may also require a small portfolio of visual or design work, or an audition.
There are several different classifications of bachelor’s degree. By far, the two most common types are Bachelor of Arts (BA), and Bachelor of Science (BSc). Broadly speaking, BA degrees include more subjects within the humanities and social sciences, such as art, languages, history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and communication-based degrees. BSc degrees are more quantitatively oriented and include science and technology-based subjects such as mathematics, information technology, computer science, finance, economics, and natural sciences.
Additionally, there is a selection of bachelor’s degree classifications which denote qualifications for career roles that hold accredited status, such as the following:
Bachelor of Architecture (BArch)
Bachelor of Education (BEd)
Bachelor of Engineering (BEng)
Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB)
Usually, it’ll be a three-year full-time course, however certain degrees can include a foundation, study abroad, or work placement year which will result in a four-year duration. Many courses can be studied part-time, which naturally takes longer to finish. Depending on the course structure, it can take between five to eight years to complete. Advanced healthcare degrees, like dentistry, medicine, and veterinary science will take longer than an average bachelor’s degree, typically five years. And honours degrees in Scotland have a four-year duration, compared to their UK counterparts.
Graduating ‘with honours’ means that you have completed a greater amount of course credits than a non-honours bachelor’s degree. It is sometimes denoted in brackets following the degree type as such, BA (Hons), and the grading of an honours degree is awarded in four classes depending on overall academic results. In the UK, almost all bachelor's degrees are awarded as honours degrees.