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BCL) as postgraduate awards equivalent to master's degrees, although many postgraduate bachelor's degrees have now been replaced by equivalent master's degrees (e.g. LLM for the LLB at Cambridge and MSc for the BSc at Oxford).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).
Bologna Process
Austria's situation is similar to Germany's, with the lowest undergraduate degrees the Magister (FH) and Diplom (FH) (designed to take three or four years). The lowest graduate degrees are Magister and Diplom, which typically fulfill a thesis requirement (including final examination and thesis defence) and can be obtained after four to six years of study. In 2000 many curricula began to be converted into bachelor's degrees ("Bakkalaureat"; the term was replaced by "bachelor's" in most curricula by 2007) and master's ("Magisterstudium") programmes, with nominal durations of six semesters (three years) and three to four semesters (18 months to two years) respectively.