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BCL) as postgraduate awards equivalent to master's degrees, although many postgraduate bachelor's degrees have now been replaced by equivalent master's degrees (e.g. LLM for the LLB at Cambridge and MSc for the BSc at Oxford).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).
Undergraduate degree
Entry to any of the available programmes of study in the university is open to anyone with a secondary school degree; in most cases, students who have successfully completed high school must pass a first year called CBC, which stands for "Ciclo Básico Común" (Common Basic Cycle). Only upon completion of this first year may the student enter the chosen school; until then, they must attend courses in different buildings, and have up to 3 years to finish the 6 or 7 subjects (which vary depending on the programme of study chosen) assigned in two groups of 3 or 4. Each subject is of one semester duration (March–July or August–November). If someone passes all 6 subjects in their respective semester, the CBC will take only one year. Potential students of economics, instead, take a 2-year common cycle, the "CBG" (General Basic Cycle), comprising 12 subjects.