Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin "baccalaureus") or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin "baccalaureatus") is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years (depending on institution and academic discipline). In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelor's degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. In countries with qualifications frameworks, bachelor's degrees are normally one of the major levels in the framework (sometimes two levels where non-honours and honours bachelor's degrees are considered separately), although some qualifications titled bachelor's degrees may be at other levels (e.g. MBBS) and some qualifications with non-bachelor's titles may be classified as bachelor's degrees (e.g. the Scottish MA and Canadian MD).
Graduate diploma
Graduate diplomas should not be confused with a postgraduate diploma, which is a master's degree-level qualification. Historically, this has not always been the case, with postgraduate diploma and graduate diploma used interchangeably, but the Quality Assurance Agency now makes a clear distinction between these titles. Some institutions have renamed courses as a result, e.g. The College of Law renamed the official title for its law conversion course from "Postgraduate Diploma in Law" to "Graduate Diploma in Law" as, although the law conversion course is studied postgraduately, the contents of the course are only undergraduate in nature.