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BCL) as postgraduate awards equivalent to master's degrees, although many postgraduate bachelor's degrees have now been replaced by equivalent master's degrees (e.g. LLM for the LLB at Cambridge and MSc for the BSc at Oxford).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).
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.