Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
Medical degrees differ from other undergraduate degrees in that they are professional qualifications that lead holders to enter a particular career upon receipt. This is not the case with most other undergraduate degrees, so whilst the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery are undergraduate or graduate degrees (depending on the institution), they are perhaps more accurately conceptualised as a so-called first professional degree. Other professions whose qualifications follow a similar pattern include:
Bachelor's degree
Up until 2009/2010, the system was split into three categories of degrees. There were the so-called first-cycle degrees: "Diplomado" or "Ingeniero Técnico", with nominal durations varying between three and four years; there were also second-cycle degrees: "Licenciado" or "Ingeniero" with nominal durations varying between four and six years; and finally the third-cycle degrees: "Doctor." The official first-cycle degrees are comparable in terms of duration, scope, and educational outcomes to an Anglo-Saxon bachelor's degree. Meanwhile, the second-cycle degrees are comparable in terms of duration, scope, and educational outcomes to an Anglo-Saxon bachelor's + Master's degrees combination if compared with the Anglo-Saxon system. In this traditional system the access to doctoral studies was granted only to the holders of "Licenciado", "Ingeniero" or "Arquitecto" (second-cycle) degrees, and the "Master" or "Magister" titles were unregulated (so, there coexisted so-called "Master" programs with different durations, from some months to two years, backed by universities or centers without any official recognition) and only the reputation of the program/institution could back them.