Bachelor of Philosophy
The University of Western Australia also offers the Bachelor of Philosophy (B.Phil.) course for high-achieving new students. This is a research intensive degree which takes four years instead of the usual three for the other bachelor's degrees. Students studying the course choose disciplines from any of the four bachelor's degrees. Places are very limited with on average only about 30 places offered to students each year. Thus there is a lot of competition for places and the cut-off admission rank is very high.
Diplom
The duration of the "Diplom" degree programmes differed depending on subject and university. An official average duration ("Regelstudienzeit") was set by law in each German state, usually being four years for a "Diplom (FH)" and 4, 4.5 or 5 years for a "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)". In exceptional cases, universities were allowed to set longer average durations for certain subjects (HGRP1995 § 26 (3), NHG2007 § 6 (3), HmbHG2001 §53 (3)). However, due to the curriculum set by most universities in Germany, the 4, 4.5 or 5 years for a "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)" were often exceeded.
Although being a first degree, because of its actual duration, the "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)" was and is in Germany not considered as an equivalent to a bachelor's but rather to a master's degree, as also expressed by the equivalent ECTS credits for the "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)".