Is an American Bachelors equivalent to an Australian Masters degree?

You have been misinformed. For many years it was the other way around. An Australian Bachelors was equal to an US Masters. Australian degrees do not do the general year that you do in the US. If you transfer from the US to an Australian university - the first year of subjects you do dont count towards the Australian degree. There are two education paths and you have confused them. The Coursework path which you do a Bachelor plus a Masters by coursework - This is a way to get two majors plus a professional development skill. The second way is the Research path - which a Bachelor degree PLUS honours (4 years) is required to get into a PhD program. PhD in Australia is only 3 years. In the US it is signifantly longer than that. This is because the Australian PhD is pure research - no course work, no teaching, just your research project. International students coming to Australia that have not completed a full years research must do a Masters by research first to see if they are suitable. I have been working with PhD Students for 10 years and not one single Australian student has needed to do a Masters to get in - only the international students.

In Australia to be admitted directly into the PhD program you need a 4 year honors degree or a 3 year degree + an extra honors year (4 years) for direct entry into Phd program. An Australian Masters degree is higher than a U.S Bachelors degree. To gain entry into a Masters degree you need a minimum of a 3 year degree as well as relevant work experience for some courses. Some Masters programs such as an MBA in Australia allow direct entry without an undergraduate degree if you have relevant work experience usually 10+ years. Overall most Universities are rather flexible as they want your money so tell them what you want to do and most of the time they will let you do the course.

bachelor= bachelor. Americans arnt better than Australians.