I've been on Google/BE/other forums for the past week now and still am unsure of the answer to this question. I've even emailed about 5-6 Uni's, and out of the 2 that replied, only 1 gave a semi-helpful answer - albeit to a question I didn't ask in the first place!

So my question is: what are the chances of me being accepted onto a Graduate course with a 3-year UK degree? All websites seem to state they need 4-years of University study, but for me that would mean I'd have to do a Masters over here before I can go and do a Masters in Canada! Surely this can't be right?

The degree I'm doing at the moment is Computer Science, and I will be continuing this onto Postgraduate study. I've looked on Uni websites, and they simply say that for UK grads you need to have a 2:1 or better - they don't mention how long the degree had to be.

So, does anyone have any idea if I'd be accepted at all? I don't really want to pay the application fees for 4~ Universities only to be told, "Sorry, you need 4 years of study". I'm literally tearing my hair out here.

Cheers!

I start a 3 year part time MBA programme next week & only have a 3 year Uni degree plus 17 years work experience. I don't believe that having a three year degree should in itself be a problem but I would recommend contacting, by phone, the Uni's you are interested in studying at and talking to someone in their admissions or faculty. For the MBA I had to take the GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test ) which seems to be a universal pre-requisite in North American universities for MBA programmes.

Thanks for the reply. It seems I'll have to take the GRE - Graduate Record Examination, which I assume is similar to the GMAT. What's worse is that most of the stuff I have done in the last two years, and will be doing this year makes up all 4-years of the degrees I've looked at. Bit silly really.

I don't know if you're aware, but university tuition in Canada is very much more expensive for foreign students than it is for local students. It's at least twice the price, and may be even more than that (I have a vague recollection of having heard that it was three times the price, but can't be arsed to check).

The other thing is that, if you did a master's degree in the UK, your master's degree would be accepted in Canada. What I mean is that, once you had a master's degree under your belt, they wouldn't check to find out what sort of undergraduate degree you'd done before the master's. So there might be merit in your doing your postgraduate degree in the UK.

One benefit of doing a master's degree in Canada is that, if you want to live and work in Canada after your degree, the time during which you're studying will give you an opportunity to find out if you like Canada and, if you do, to establish a "network" that will be useful in your subsequent job hunt.

Hi Judy,

Your third paragraph pretty much sums up my intentions as far as researching Canada go. I mean, I'm planning on doing a Masters anyway, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to spend some time in Canada to see what the country is really like and get a first-hand feel for the place.

As far as funding goes, I'm already budgeting for that and am aware of the costs. It is nowhere near as much as studying in the US would cost, so that's another advantage of studying in Canada.

Finally, I'll do a Masters here in the UK if the opportunity to study in Canada doesn't arise, but obviously I'd like to see if I could study there first.

Thanks for the reply.

Judy, the OP plans to come as a graduate student, not an undergrad. Many Universities (such as my own) have nominally higher fees for foreign grad students, but also offer a large number of bursaries to "visa students" which completely removes the differential.

Chippers, I doubt that you'll have to take a GRE, but check with your home university that your 3-year degree is accredited and recognized as equivalent to a Canadian BA or BSc.

There's an agency in each province which adjudicates equivalency for every foreign undergrad degree. I don't have the link at hand, but if you can't find it by googling give me a shout (PM if you prefer)...I know who to ask for the coordinates.

Thanks for the info. I did a quick search, but I only found organisations in the US, and these require you to graduate and receive your degree before you can get it evaluated.

Would you mind posting the link here? That way this post can be used as information for other people like myself who may search for answers to this question.

Thanks.

Hang on. I have to go to a meeting right now, but I'll make a phone call later this afternoon to get the Ontario agency's coordinates.

Much appreciated.

Thanks for the clarification, Novo.

Hi Chippers, my "source" tells me that the agency I was thinking of only deals with the universities, not the student. i.e. the admissions office sends foreign transcripts out for evaluation and they (not the applicant) receive the assessment.

However: here is a link to a similar organization which will deal directly with the foreign applicant...

http://www.icascanada.ca/home.php

I hope this is of some use.

Novo


On edit: I was also told that if your 3-year degree is described as an Honours degree (as opposed to a General degree), this will make a big difference.

I'll give that site a look, thanks.

Canadian degrees tend to be long than UK courses. Everyone is shocked that I got my MSc in one year.

It could be that they say 4 years because of Canadian standards, but will "convert" this for UK courses, so hopefully shouldn't be a problem when they see that you have a full batchelors.

Good luck tracking down a satisifactory answer though.

Scottish Honours degrees are 4 years with an extra 18 months study required for an MSc...in general.

You can do an MSc in one year though it's usually as a returnee after gaining your BSc some years earlier.

Start here:
http://www.cicic.ca/en/page.aspx?sortcode=2.20.23.25