Undergraduate Education Images
Undergraduate education is an education level taken in order to gain one's first tertiary degree (except for an associate's degree). Hence, in many subjects and many educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree, such as in the United States, where a university entry level is known as undergraduate while students of higher degrees are known as graduates. In some other educational systems and subjects, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a master's degree, for example in some science courses in Britain and some medicine courses in Europe.
In India the Graduation system is classified into two Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) Systems. It takes three or four years to complete an "undergraduate" degree. The three-year undergraduate programs are mostly in the fields of arts, commerce, science etc., and the four-year programs are mostly in the fields of technology, engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, agriculture etc. However, for medicine, law and architecture, the period has been five years.
Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland may usually enter university from the age of eighteen, often having studied A-levels and thus having had thirteen to fifteen years of schooling. Occasionally students who finish A Level or equivalent qualifications early (after skipping a year in school on the grounds of academic giftedness) may enter below this age but large universities are now setting lower age limits of 16 or 17 after a number of well publicised "child prodigies" were found to be emotionally and mentally unprepared for university life.
Applications for undergraduate courses in UK higher education are made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
For their first degree, most students read for the degree of bachelor, which usually takes three years, however in the sciences and engineering integrated courses covering both undergraduate level and advanced degree level leading to the degree of master, usually taking four years and including a research project or dissertation are popular. Given the integrated nature of these programs someone who gains a master's degree via an integrated program is not admitted to the degree of bachelor.
