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They seem to be used in Britain and the USA as synonyms denoting an official paper. But as I understood from dictionaries' definitions and from the answers here, in Britain they mostly use a degree certificate in speech (orally) and a diploma in written texts. Besides a diploma is a paper to certify that you finish all the courses but still do not have a degree.

It looks like in the USA the situation is the opposite: a diploma (in X) is a document that implies that you have earned a baccalaureate or advanced degree in that subject.

In Russia we have a diploma which implies that the person has successfully finished all the courses and earned the degree. What word is mostly used in Great Britain and in the USA to denote such a paper?

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    The definition of diploma in British dictionaries agrees with the American definition. Why do you think they're different? The British give diplomas to somebody who has completed a course of study that is not rigorous enough for a bachelor's degree, but they have still completed that course of study. And in the U.S., a diploma also means you have completed a course of study, but not necessarily that the course of study led to a degree. There may be a difference in informal usage, but not in the actual definition.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 11:17
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    And in German a "diplom" is close to a masters degree. Dictionary usage and translation doesn't necessarily cover all the distinctions between professional meanings.
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 11:54
  • @PeterShor ~ there are also post-grad diplomas that come after a bachelors degree. Effectively, when you complete the coursework of a masters you get a post-grad diploma, and when you complete the dissertation you get a masters.
    – Roaring Fish
    Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 12:58
  • @Roaring Fish: we don't have those in the U.S. (although we certainly have diplomas for post-graduate non-degree programs), and I expect those are what is confusing the OP. But I would assume in most countries, the piece of paper you get when you complete your thesis is also called a diploma.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 13:39
  • @PeterShor ~ that is interesting, and confusing me now! I call mine a Masters degree, not a masters diploma. In my mind, the hierarchy is certificate -> diploma -> degree. Certificate when you leave school, a diploma (sometimes called a foundation) from a college or university that gets you onto a graduate course, then you degree, then start the sequence again with post-grad cert though they are rare in practice.
    – Roaring Fish
    Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 13:47

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I can't speak for other languages or cultures but in Britain the terms certificate, diploma and degree apply to specific levels of education.

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The GCSC, or General Certificate of Standard Education, is your school leaving qualifications at 16. From there you can either go for a National Diploma at college or "A" levels at school - the two are generally equivalent and normally take two years. The National Diploma is more often of a more practical nature whereas "A" levels are usually more academic.

Which ever route you choose you can then go on to either a Higher National Diploma (a further 2 years) or a Degree (typically 3 years). A Degree is a higher qualification than an HND and again is often more academic.

Above the degree you have the PhD (or D.Phil), Masters and Baccalaureates. There is some fuzziness between the difference between these, but it basically boils down to the focus of the course. From my understanding above the Degree the terms are pretty much universal throughout the world - a PhD from Oxford is as good as a PhD from Harvard.

And then of course you have the extra meaning of some of the words. For instance, Certificate and Diploma can apply to any piece of paper. Certificate can be for any achievement in any field, not necessarily to do with education in any way at all. For instance I have a Bronze Swimming Certificate. It just marks some point of achievement for doing something. Diploma, on the other hand, is reserved for a certificate pertaining to academic achievement.

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  • I have a swimming diploma; guess my backstroke is more academic than yours.
    – jiggunjer
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 3:51
  • Quite possible, since I can't backstroke :)
    – Majenko
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 7:05

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