Susan says, substantiating Aviva's fear that none of us has any idea
what's going on anyplace else . .
> 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)
Nope. Not in New Brunswick. No such thing as a three-year degree
here. I didn't have any idea it was standard in NS, either -- my
daughter's in a four-year degree at Dal (at least I _think_ she is;
it didn't occur to me to think she might be graduating next spring.
Maybe I'd better check with her).
> 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.
Is what actually happens (say, in my daughter's case) that New
Brunswick students are _treated_ as though they were junior
matriculation? I don't believe anybody suggested to Amelia that one
advantage of going to Nova Scotia was that she could get a BA in
three years . . .
> 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
> some electives).
Hm. Maybe it was just because it never occurred to us.
> 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.
There's no question of "admission" to a four-year honours program,
or of differing postgraduate potential? Here, an "honours" degree
and and ordinary degree look exactly the same except for the
designation, which I assume (probably wrongly) has some impact on
employment and postgraduate program possibilities.
> For example, students are beginning to take the 20-unit degree
> before getting into the BEd programme (now a two-year post
> baccalaureate degree).
This is all amazing to me. You mean there were students who could
get into the BEd programme in Nova Scotia after a three-year BA?
> Aviva's right: there's considerable variation!
And, I can attest to this, considerable levels of ignorance . . .
-- Russ
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