pass degree

noun

1. (in English universities) an ordinary bachelor's degree conferred without honors.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pass degree¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

This was the happy result of a viva, an oral exam, conducted by the perplexed examiners to decide whether the singularly inept candidate whose papers also revealed flashes of brilliance should be given a First, an Upper Second or a Pass degree, the latter being tantamount to failure.

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As a title of address, “his honour” or “your honour” is applied in the United States of America to all judges, in the United Kingdom only to county court judges; in university or other examinations, those who have won particular distinction, or have undergone with success an examination of a standard higher than that required for a “pass” degree, are said to have passed “with honours,” or an “honours” examination or to have taken an “honours degree.”

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His studies, however, were so greatly interrupted by the protracted illness and death in 1832 of his only surviving brother, that Lord Ramsay, as he then became, had to content himself with entering for a “pass” degree, though the examiners marked their appreciation of his work by placing him in the fourth class of honours for Michaelmas 1833.

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The system for granting the pass degree is, in its broader outlines, the same as for all degrees.

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By this time they have anticipated most of the studies required for a pass degree in the university, and find little or nothing to do when they go up but to evade their tutors and to "reside."

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