Hello all, I've got a question about getting to a PhD without an honours degree. In the event I do miss out on getting a BA (hon), and end up with only a merit, is it still possible to go for a doctorate course? I've read online that I can go for a Masters course first, but is this applicable everywhere?

( free +'s given to all who assist :D )

It'd probably depend on the rules there but in australia that sort of thing seems to be entirely at the discretion of the course coordinator. I'm technically not elligible for the masters I'm doing since I didn't do the prerequsite classes but my coordinator gave me credit for stuff that he felt was close enough. Also he thinks I'm awesome so I probably get a bit of leeway there.

Might be worth having a word to whoever runs the course to see what credits you can get, you might be able to do the essential prereq masters subjects as a sort of pre-doctoral year, kock over the absolute essentials then start the doctorate level the next year

Not sure about Singapore, but in France it's mostly the decision of your coordinator and the relevant person who runs the course.

Some professors are more lenient than others on prerequisites, others stick to the rules.
Usually if you have a good explanation for wanting to bend the rules or they like you, people will let you get away with it.

I managed to have some of my CS courses recognized as some of the "language" credits needed for my History master (avoiding having to retake courses on Latin), so some coordinators are very lenient.

In the UK the route is Degree Masters PhD ie you have to do all 3 in order. No you do not require an hon's you can get on a masters course with a third

Yeah, there's a rule that if you have under 14/20 for your master, you can't enter in a doctorate course, but that rule never really applies. I got a 14/20 and some years later I could enter the doctorate course without any problem.

mystral> yay ! a fellow french man who graduated in History like me ! ^_^

Unfortunately for us in the humanities, doctorates are being given out like crazy. A shit teaching job at a university in the boondocks of the US always has 600 applicants.

Which is the very reason why you should get another degree on top of the humanities one.
Frankly, getting a Computer Science or Engineering degree isn't hard, and it serves as a nice fallback position if you can't get the job you want. haha. What's your specialty? Something Japan-related since you're living there? Mine is the correlation between the British Civil War and the Fronde.

Yeah, another degree on the side can't hurt. I chose French as a Foreign Language and that's what has earned me my job in Japan.

mystral>I'm a Medievist. ^_^ I wish I could have done something related to Japan, but my university was way too small and no professor was interested... So I studied about christian refugees in Frank Kingdom at the time of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) and Muslim Spain. Not quite what I had in mind first, but it turned out to be pretty interesting (and complex).

Software development doesn't really require a degree, even today. You'll get more credit among most interviewers having your name on some commits to a OSS project or launching your own Android app or something.

Honestly the situation isn't that much better for academic positions in the Sciences. There have been several Nature articles in the news section devoted to the large glut of post-docs in the system and what to do about it. We might not be quite as bad as the humanities yet but we're heading slowly in that direction.

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But as for the OP's query, which field are you in? In the US, undergraduate honors degrees are not necessary, but of course do help your application. Also are you applying straight to PhD or are you going to go through a Master's program first? For Ph.D. programs in most research and technical fields, solid research or work experience with a strong letter of recommendation from a professor or industry-researcher counts for more than an honors degree. However, this will vary from field to field and even department to department so it's hard to give you exact advice about what is more important, but the bottom line is that (in the States) you are (mostly) not required to have an honors degree for PhD though it can help you in your application.

Agreed but it gives you a much better chance of getting a job than a History degree, and it can be useful anyway if you do manage to find a job in your preferred field.

I'm using my CS degree in my history work, mostly modifying text-analysis programs used by linguists to make them useful for historians. Of course, no software will ever be able to analyze a historical text for you, but it can save you some time on the groundwork.

Actually, I think I'm the resident Japanese-historian on the forums, but I tend to focus on Japan, Korea, and a little bit of China. I have to admit I am happy to see so many History majors on the GOG forums.

Just finished my PhD in world history with fields in British imperial and educational history. Before the jokes commence on how useless this is, I am actually working in the field now and have a MBA for when I do eventually need to make a living wage...

Nowt wrong with taking a specialisation in British Imperial history, lad. We conquered over 25% of the whole world! Not just the known world (at that specific time)!
Not so sure about the history of (British?) education, though.....
but then I've nothing formal in either, just a good generalised interest in, and working knowledge of, history (even though I got bored to death of 8+ years of "The Battle of Hastings" from Primary/Junior (ages 7-11) school up).

:P