From: goh@nyquist.usc.edu (K.C.Goh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Re: US vs British university degree
Date: 25 Aug 1992 11:43:53 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: nyquist.usc.edu

In article <4900025@hpcc01.corp.hp.com> selee@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Lee Say Eng) writes:
>
>Seems to me that US degrees are consistently the targets of abuse
>and that the people who hurl such abuses are people with a UK-oriented
>education.
>
>I think we have to be careful about generalizing that *ALL* US degress
>are inferior coz I'm sure there are some excellent US Universities out
>there. 
>
>	<Other stuff deleted>

There seems to be some interest in comparing UK and US degrees so
here is an eyewitness report from a person who has had the dubious honor of
studying under both systems.  I received my BSc from a university in UK and
I'm currently studying for a PhD in US, both in what I hope are reputable 
Electrical Engineering departments.
While I've conducted no surveys, here is what I've observed:

Fact:
UK universities assume reasonable A level background in Further Math and
Physics. Hence the 1st year in UK is at least roughly equivalent to the
sophomore or junior years in US in terms of work in area of major, i.e EE.

Fact:
US programs are a lot more general than in UK.  Most US students only
start doing real work in their major in the junior and senior years.
Hence in US most students get at most two and a half years work in their
major area which is roughly equivalent to the the situation in UK in
three year BSc courses.

Fact:
In US the work seems to be more intensive.  For example,
a typical student would have attended over 420 classroom hours
(15 hours per week for 28 weeks, excluding summer), whereas
in UK it would be about 300 classroom hours (10 hours per week for
3 terms of 10 weeks each, excluding summer).

Fact:
UK universities seem to cover advanced topics earlier.
Example: Stochastic processes and Estimation in the third year in UK.
This would commonly be a MSc course in US, where it would be covered
in greater depth.

Fact:
UK universities cover topics in less depth.
Example: Introduction to Signals and Systems including Convolution, 
Laplace, Fourier and Z Transforms would be covered in about
10 classroom hours and performance evaluation would be three 20 minute
questions in the year end final examination.  
In US a typical course would include 40 classroom
hours and would include homework, a midterm and a final in its 
grade evaluation.

Conclusion:
The UK system moves faster to advanced topics, perhaps sacrificing
depth.  The US system is more geared towards providing a general
education and does not cover as many advanced topics, but covers
what it does cover in depth.  In my opinion, both are roughly
equivalent if we compare departments with roughly equivalent strengths.

Question:
How does one translate the UK class of honours system to the US GPA
system? Does 1st Class = 3.8, 2nd Class U = 3.2, 2nd class L = 2.8
etc sound right ? 

Remark:
I've discussed undergraduate degrees. The situation is probably
not similar for MSc/PhD degrees.

Is anybody from Singapore/Australia/NZ in a position to compare their
undergraduate curriculums with  those in US?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean