Magna cum laude

Whatever that means in whatever language, I think congratulations to Cheng is in order.

I received a letter today from Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven which shows the results for her International Master of Social Policy Analysis. Overall Percentage: 81 and Overall Result: Magna cum laude.

She has yet to find out for us how she should show her new qualification. IMSPA? While we wonder about her future career, she said she has acquired the skill of knowing whether a report, say from World Bank, is well prepared or not.

But one thing we can be sure of is that even with a PhD, a report can be rubbished by a Malaysian minister, so there is no future here. We only want reports that support our NEP ok?

Cheng explains:

"Magna cum laude" is translated as "with great distinction" (or literally, "with great praise" in Latin) and is the rough equivalent of a British first-class honours. Amongst the PhD student community, this is the norm - in fact, some even have "summa cum laude" degrees ("with greatest distinction").