Honours

All disciplines in the School of Social Sciences offer an Honours program.  An Honours program is a fourth year of an undergraduate degree. 

Honours is a specialist qualification that is the culmination of a course of studies in a discipline.  It opens up opportunities for further research in a postgraduate program or for professional practice in some disciplines.  Honours graduates have a well-recognised edge over students with a Bachelor degree: employers appreciate the advanced training in research and analysis that an Honours degree provides.

Whatever the anticipated outcome, an Honours year is an immensely rewarding experience.  It offers an opportunity of working closely with teachers and fellow students in small group settings quite unlike those that you will normally have encountered in your earlier years at university.

A Joint Honours program can also be created between disciplines within the School and with disciplines in other Schools in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, or other faculties in the University. 

An Honours degree is a necessary qualification for anyone wishing to undertake postgraduate studies by research.

Students normally complete their Honours course in one academic year of full-time study: ‘full-time study’ means that students should be able to commit at least five full working days per week to the completion of their Honours program.
 
In exceptional circumstances students may enrol for Honours part-time.  Admission to the Honours Program (Part Time) is strictly limited to the following grounds:

• students with care-giver responsibilities,
• students in greater than or equal to half-time employment,
• students with significant sickness or disability,
• compassionate grounds.

Please note that in all circumstances, it should be clear that the student is unable to (rather than chooses not to) pursue Honours on a full-time basis.
 
Both the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the relevant discipline must approve part-time enrolment.  To request this approval students must write to the Faculty Registrar (Humanities and Social Sciences) no later than 31st March and provide details of the grounds on which the request is based.
 
Part-time students must complete their Honours program over two consecutive academic years. Normally, the coursework component of the Honours program would be completed during the first year of part-time study and the research component would be completed during the second year. 

For further information about Honours please click on the relevant discipline:

• Anthropology
     and Development Studies
• Asian Studies
• Geographical and Environmental Studies
• Gender, Work and Social Inquiry