Questiions to those studding in UNISA or other Sa Uni's (honors degree)

As I have writen I have a BA from an Israeli college. The South African academic system requires a Honors degree between the BA and Masters.

The Israeli system has no such degree and it would be of no use to me. Is there away to go arround this requirement?
It seemes like a waste of time and more important money so I prefere to go straight to Masters .

Is it possible?
What do the students in the US do who like me have no need for the honors degree.

Would appretiate any input
have a good week

A'

 

Try these folks....

Study Buddies | Online forum for students studying at UNISA

They might can help

 

In the South African system a Bachelors degree is a 3 year degree and the Honors degree is the fourth year. Those degrees tend to be more focused within their area of study with far fewer general education credits required (compared to US degrees). I don't know what the Israeli system is like but if it's like the US system then you could bypass the SA Honors degree and apply directly to the Masters program.

 

I did e mail them (more then once- different people ) and the answer was that there is no way arround it. One cannot do an MA without an honors.

The Israeli BA is very similar to the American system . They do not know what an Honors is so its irrelivant here.
I would hate to do a degree which would be useless here

 

I think you may find that the honours degree may allow to go straight from there to the Doctorate. In Australia, the award of a Bachelor's degree with honours is considered the equivalent of a Masters Degree. Australia operates off the traditional British system. South Africa may do the same. an honours graduate here may go straight to the PhD.

The Masters Degree has a history of being (1) a first degree - in the UK, some universities used to award Masters as the first degree after a prolonged period of study,(2) The Masters Degree was then awarded for those students who were studying for their Doctorate but exited early for some reason and the Masters was awarded for the work done (if there was a sufficiency of it).

The US model of course work masters is a recent event in the non US world. They are growing in number. Most Masters outside the US otherwise require a thesis of between thirty - sixty thousand words. They are research only. They are also seen as part one of the PhD (usually the literature review for the PhD). The actual research is part two of the PhD.

You cannot view the SA awards through the US model. You need to examine it from the British Commonwealth perspective. An Honours degree is a very demanding one.

 

My advice will sound crazy: Don't believe the email. Go through the process. Make your application. Your credentials will be evaluated by SAQA (not UNISA). It will cost you almost nothing to apply. You have only that to lose.

 

I agree..

I agree with Kizmet and SteveF..

Please bear in mind, this is 'crazy time' at Unisa, as they register another 200,000+ students.

I too would disregard [what I also consider wrong advise from those at Unisa you have heard from] previous e-mails and just start the registration process for the master's [please see my previous post, which I hope will be of some help].

Your Israeli bachelor's should be well sufficient to gain entrance to a Unisa master's program. I suspect, the folks you have communicated with at Unisa, have not dealt much with Israeli's.

I would encourage pressing on!

Kind regards and Shalom!!

 

How many years is the standard Israeli BA?
If it is three, you will need to do an honours degree. No question.
If it is four, you have a good chance that the Saqa evaluation will grade it as equal to an honours degree.
In SA a standard BSc, Bcom or BA is 3 years. There are however several other more focused/specialised bachelor's degrees that take four years and are considered honours equivalents and would get into master's programmes. This is standard policy. I bet they are just assuming that your BA is the same as an SA BA (three years) and judging it accordingly. I wouldn't be surprised if telling them it took four years makes them think nothing more than you needed an extra year to complete it.
Take Kizmet's excellent advise. Get the Saqa evaluation done and base your application on those results. Otherwise, you will just end up running in circles.

 

I've just done a little digging online and it seems that Israel does offer 3 year B degrees. If this is so then I am afraid you will more than likely have to do an honours degree before being admitted to a master's programme based on credentials alone. You can also use your experience in your field, alongside your previous degree, to qualify you for a master's degree though, especially if it is thesis based, as most here are.

 

I suppose Ill do what Haggai,Kizmet, and you suggested and just set the ball rolling . I must admit that Im quite supprised that the staff at UNISA dot know what is wirten on the UNISA web site in clear (or not so clear English . What is needed to inroll into UNISA Masters is a BA + honorst 0r A BA + a post Graduate diploma (which is what Im doing now).Seems strange to me that the UNISA staff are not intune with what is written on their site.

 

It does not look like UNISA or other schools in SA are a good fit for you - nothing is wrong with that. Another inexpensive option is investigating schools in Malaysia.

 

Being an X South African with a SA passport and ID I do think that UNISA is an ok choice .
I kind of have an Idea about the South African academic system.

The only draw back is the bureaucracy - tiring.

 

I did read in your first post that you were South African. Anyway you want your experience to be a good one. In the country of my birth its institutions are not always a fit for me. Your frustration is showing thus the reason for my comment.

 

Nope not to my knowledge . To go study for a PhD one must have an MA (masters) in South Africa.The honors is just an "inbetween" degree . To the best of my knowledge one cannot do much with it.

Do you perhaps know the History of these degrees and how they originated ( I guess from the UK academis system but I'm not sure)

 

Here lies the reason for my frustration

 

In Australia, the Honours degree is characterized by doing a research component, inclusive of a thesis, above the level of the original bachelors degree. It usually deemed to be the equivalent of a Masters. Honours graduates here go straight to the Doctorate. Research Masters (no coursework) in many cases consists of doing an extensive literature review that is then used in the Doctorate. This has changed a lot in recent times and there are now straight coursework masters, although many have a reduced research component.

If I was doing straight research and no coursework, I would pick a topic and then do undertake an extensive lit review of the topic. I then "roll" this over to be the lit review for the PhD. This would only leave me with the actual research component of the PhD to do. Alternatively, I could just exit with the Masters Degree or do a reduced lit review in the Masters and a small research component. I, personally, would aim for the former as it leaves an option open, assuming that the university agrees.

I think the honours process was about weeding out contenders for higher level studies. Most undergrad degrees in the Commonwealth are actually designed to be professional quals where in the US it seems that the Masters is the first professional qualification. In the past, if you wanted to be, for example, a social worker, you merely did the social work undergraduate degree. This is still the case. There is still one university where you can become a medical doctor with only an undergrad. degree. Most now require a degree in something else before doing medicine. Generally, the higher level quals were for university researchers, not practitioners. Universities are trying to gradually introduce the US model for their own purposes.

 

In SA it is similar except that the masters is still usually required for PhD entrance. Honours degrees are a years and often have a research component that can be expanded on in the masters thesis. Few masters non-business/MBA type masters degrees have coursework.

 

Absolutely right