typically 70 % or higher is a uk first class honours degree.
typically 70 % or higher is a uk first class honours degree.
what is a uk first class honours degree?
typically 70 % or higher
section::::degree classification.









































a bachelor's degree can be an "honours degree" (bachelor's with honours) or an "ordinary degree" (bachelor's without honours). honours degrees are classified, usually based on a weighted average (with higher weight given to marks in the later years of the course, and often zero weight to those in the first year) of the marks gained in exams and other assessments. grade boundaries can vary by institution, but typical values are given below.









































bullet::::- first-class honours (1st, 1 or i) – typically 70% or higher









































bullet::::- second-class honours;









































bullet::::- upper division (2:1, 2i or ii-1) – typically 60–69%
british undergraduate degree classification
some interesting figures were quoted in the 1918 report; for instance on page 31 of the report: out of 72 schools that had 200–400 girls of all ages, only 39 had the services of two science teachers (mistresses). the report went on state that these figures had contributed to long hours and inadequate salaries. this sounds strikingly similar to the situation facing science (and indeed all) school teachers in england today; a hundred years later. another challenge was that there was not an appreciation by the political elite on the value of a science education to the wider public; despite the fact that england was producing some of the greatest scientists in the world. yet another challenge was that public schools were slow to respond to the needs of developing a science curriculum. for example, william sharp was the first science teacher for rugby school, a prestigious public school in england, which only happened for the first time in 1847; nearly 300 years after the college was established and more than 100 years after england had lost one of the world's greatest scientists—isaac newton. despite these challenges, a science curriculum and education developed through the twentieth century and eventually became a compulsory part of the new national curriculum in 1988 (phased in from 1989 to 1992). even at the time of the deliberations in the mid-1980s prior to the creation of the national curriculum, there was disagreement over how much time science should occupy in the curriculum. there was pressure for science to be made to occupy 20% of curriculum time for 14–16-year-olds, but not everyone agreed with this; certainly not the then secretary of state for education and science kenneth baker. the then department for education and science settled for 12.5% of curriculum time, but schools were free to increase this. the result was the emergence of single science (which occupied 10% of curriculum time and was the minimum requirement—also called "core" science), double science (which occupied 20% of curriculum time, and was so called because it involved studying core science and "additional" science), and there was the option of doing the sciences of physics, chemistry and biology separately (also known as 'triple' science). following the changes to the national curriculum in the 2010s, single science has effectively been removed, and the two components of double science have been combined to form 'combined science', which is now the minimum requirement. one challenge that ties in with england's shortage of science teachers is the number of science undergraduates in higher education, which provides the pool for future trainee science teachers, but undergraduate numbers affect the three sciences differently: the number of students that study physical sciences in higher education (93050 in the year 2012/13) are less than half the students that study biological sciences (201520 in the year 2012/13). this has had a direct impact on government policy in england; for example, the uk government offers bursaries of £30000 to graduates with first class honours degrees wishing to train as physics teachers in secondary schools in england; for chemistry, the top bursary is £25000, and for biology it is £15000. for students with lower honours degrees in these subjects, correspondingly lower bursaries are offered, but they are still considerable for physics graduates (compared to bursaries offered to trainee teachers of other subjects). for instance, a physics graduate with a lower second class honours degree can still attract a bursary of £25000. but the government has also implemented a policy to increase the number of science graduates from uk universities: normally a student in england wishing to study for a first degree including an honours degree can get a uk-government-backed student loan as long as s/he does not already possess an honours degree. exceptions are permitted, but prior to september 2017 (and in the case of postgraduate master's degrees, september 2016), these uk-government-backed loans for those in england that already had honours degrees were only available for them if the courses they were going to study led to professional qualifications such as medicine, dentistry, social care, architecture or teaching. however the range of subjects for which a student in england already in possession of an honours degree could get a second uk-government-backed student loan to study a second honours degree was expanded to include science subjects (as well as technology, engineering and mathematics), which took effect from 1 september 2017. like before, the student has to meet both england and uk residency requirements . the inclusion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (collectively called "stem" subjects) to the list appears to have been triggered not just by teacher shortages in those subjects, but also by a general skills shortage (in those subjects) uk-wide. it remains to be seen whether the direct interventions by the uk government help alleviate the general skills shortages in stem subjects, as well as the challenges of delivering a science curriculum and education in the long-term. as for universities, several challenges have been identified by grove (2015); the summaries of those challenges have been reproduced below:
science education in england