Bachelor's degree
Until the 19th century, a bachelor's degree represented the first degree in a particular faculty, with Arts representing undergraduate study, thus the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) at Oxford and the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at Cambridge, for example, were postgraduate degrees. Vestiges of this system still remain in the ancient universities, with Oxford and Cambridge awarding BAs for undergraduate degrees in both arts and sciences (although both award undergraduate BTh degrees through associated theological colleges, and Oxford awards BFA degrees in addition to the BA) and defining other bachelor's degrees (e.g. BPhil, BCL) as postgraduate awards equivalent to master's degrees, although many postgraduate bachelor's degrees have now been replaced by equivalent master's degrees (e.g. LLM for the LLB at Cambridge and MSc for the BSc at Oxford). The same historical usage of indicating an undergraduate degree by it being in the faculty of arts rather than being a bachelor's degree gives rise to the Oxbridge MA and the Scottish MA).
Honours degree
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Bachelor's degrees are normally awarded "with Honours" after three years of study. The bachelor's degree with Honours meets the requirements for a higher education qualification at level 6 of the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in full, and is a first cycle, end-of-cycle award on the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area established by the Bologna process.
Students can be awarded an "Ordinary" degree if they achieve the required learning outcomes over a smaller volume of studies than is required for an honours degree, e.g. only passing 300 credits rather than the 360 usually required for an honours degree. In addition to bachelor's degrees, four year integrated master's degrees, which combine study at bachelor's and master's level, are also awarded with honours.