Degree Classifications Explained: First Class, Upper and Lower Second, Third
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Jun 28, 2025 • Education Planning
Most English-speaking African universities inherited the British honours classification system: First Class, Second Class Upper, Second Class Lower, Third Class, and Pass. Each country sets its own numeric scale to decide where the boundaries fall.
🎓 The five classes trace back to British university tradition
Nigeria uses a 5-point CGPA scale, First Class from 4.50
Ghana uses a CWA out of 100, First Class from 70
South Africa mostly uses distinctions and cum laude instead of these class names
Many master's programs require at least Second Class Upper for direct entry
Where the classification names come from
British universities have graded honours degrees as First Class, Second Class (split into Upper and Lower divisions), Third Class, and Pass since the nineteenth century. Universities across Anglophone Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, adopted the same class names during the colonial and early independence period, and most kept them after independence even as each country built its own regulator and grading scale.
The five classes and what they mean
First Class Honours, the highest, awarded to a small share of graduates in most programs.
Second Class Upper (2:1), a strong result and the usual minimum for direct entry into a master's program.
Second Class Lower (2:2), a solid pass that still counts as an honours degree.
Third Class, the lowest honours-level pass in most systems.
Pass, a degree awarded without honours in systems that offer this category.
How boundaries differ by country
Nigerian universities score you on a 5-point CGPA scale set by National Universities Commission standards, where First Class needs a CGPA of 4.50 to 5.00. Ghanaian public universities score you on a Cumulative Weighted Average out of 100, where First Class generally needs 70 or above, as KNUST's grading guide sets out. Both systems use the same five class names even though the underlying numbers look different.
Countries that use a different system
South Africa mostly does not use the First Class, Second Class Upper, Second Class Lower naming convention. South African universities award a degree as a pass, or as a pass with distinction, and reserve cum laude for degrees that clear a high average set by each university's own senate rather than one shared national threshold.
Check your target university's own rules before assuming a South African cum laude result maps directly onto a Nigerian First Class or a Ghanaian 70 CWA, since these systems measure similar excellence through different numbers.
How the classification affects your next step
Graduate schools inside Africa and abroad often set Second Class Upper, or its equivalent CWA or percentage score, as the baseline for admission into a master's program without extra conditions. A Second Class Lower or Third Class graduate frequently still qualifies, though often through extra requirements such as a longer work history, a qualifying certificate, or a stronger set of references.
Employers in Nigeria, Ghana, and other Anglophone African countries also screen graduate job applications by class of degree at the first stage, before an interview, in industries such as banking, consulting, and the civil service. A strong class of degree gets you past the first screening stage more easily. It rarely decides a job on its own, since interviews, aptitude tests, and portfolio review still follow.
Why the numbers behind each class still matter
Two graduates who both hold a Second Class Upper from different countries did not necessarily clear the same academic bar. A Nigerian 2:1 sits on a CGPA scale where 3.50 is the floor. A Ghanaian equivalent sits on a CWA scale where 60 is the floor. When you compare qualifications across borders for a job or a scholarship application, look at the underlying scale and percentage, not the class label alone.