The standard undergraduate BA/BSc degree in the Maritimes is still, I
believe, a "three-year" one after entrance from Grade Twelve, that is,
one that requires fifteen units or credits (two semester courses with
two-three contact hours per week, excluding labs, for twelve or
thirteen weeks per semester). Professional degrees (at least at my
university) are twenty-units (Business admin, Human Ecology, public
relations, tourism and hospitality management, child and youth study)
Still on the books is a twenty-unit BA/BSc for students entering
after Grade eleven (junior matriculation). Almost no one comes
straight to university from grade eleven any more, though
there are some (the only one I recall in recent years was a very
bright army brat who'd moved around a great deal, didn't want to try
a new high school for one year, and came here instead, to start a BA.
We also now have twenty-unit BA/BSc degrees after grade twelve, on the
principle that fifteen units isn't enough scope really to learn
electives). There is some talk of universities going to twenty-unit
degrees only (Acadia, perhaps?): it's a way of holding onto enrolment,
I suppose. I'm not quite sure why students would take a twenty-unit
"ordinary" degree rather than a twenty-unit "honours" degree, except
that it allows them to broaden as well and deepen their knowledge.
For example, students are beginning to take the 20-unit degree before
getting into the BEd programme (now a two-year post baccalaureate
degree).
Aviva's right: there's considerable variation!
Susan Drain, Ph.D. 902 457 6220
Chair, English Department [log in to unmask]
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax, NS
Canada B3M 2J6
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