British degree abbreviations

Degree abbreviations are used as an alternative way to specify an academic degree instead of spelling out the title in full, such as in reference books such as Who's Who and on business cards. Many degree titles have more than one possible abbreviation, with the abbreviation used varying between different universities. In the UK it is normal not to punctuate abbreviations for degrees with full stops (e.g. "BSc" rather than "B.Sc."), although this is done at some universities. The Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies lays down five levels of qualification with the title of degree: foundation (not in Scotland), ordinary and honours bachelor's (only separate levels in Scotland), master's and doctoral. These relate to specific outcome-based level descriptors and are tied to the Bologna Process. It is common to put the name of the awarding institute in brackets after the degree abbreviation, e.g. BA (Lond). A list of standard abbreviations for British universities can be found at . Note that the lists below include historical degrees that may not currently be offered in British universities. For historical reasons some universities (the ancient universities of England and Scotland) do not fully adhere to the Framework (particularly with respect to the title of Master of Arts), and degrees in medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine are titled as bachelor's degrees despite being at master's level. The usage in the ancient universities is not consistent with the Framework or the Bologna Process. The ancient universities of England (Oxford and Cambridge) grant an MA degree that is not a substantive qualification but reflects the ancient practice of these universities of promoting BAs to MAs (and thus full membership of the University) a few years after graduating (see Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)). The ancient universities of Scotland award an undergraduate MA (see Scottish MA) instead of a BA.