<p>Hi KEV - yes, basically. </p>
<p>It’s a quirk of the Oxford system that there’s no difference in content between an “Honours BA” and an ‘Ordinary BA’. There’s just a BA, which may be awarded “with honours” if someone does well on the final exams.</p>
<p>In other universities, there is actually a difference in degree content between a BA and a BA (Hons). Often the difference is whether the student successfully completes a thesis or not: no thesis = BA, thesis = BA (Hons).</p>
<p>That’s not the case at Oxford; only the final examination mark determines whether the degree is awarded with honours or not. The content is standardised.</p>
<p>But because almost all universities in the UK do it differently, for convention I put that I have a BA (Hons) on my CV. I actually have a BA “awarded with honours” but for simplicity I write BA (Hons).</p>
<p>Does that make sense at all? </p>
<p>OK. Now say Mr X did badly on his exams and wasn’t awarded a degree “with honours.” He still has a BA, just no honours classification. To attend grad school in the UK you (generally) have to have a BA (Hons) - since Oxford doesn’t award these, the equivalent would be BA “with honours”. Mr X doesn’t have that, so he doesn’t qualify to attend. </p>
<p>The difference at MIT, from what I understand, is that there is no equivalent AT ALL to BA (Hons), so an applicant can’t possibly be expected to have it. Now at Oxford, there’s no BA (Hons), but there IS a BA “awarded with honours”.</p>