Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Why do Honours?

An Honours year can provide you with a competitive edge in your chosen profession. It also provides a gateway for postgraduate research programs if you wish to pursue a Masters by Research or PhD in the future.

Overview

The Honours year has two functions in the university curriculum: as an in-depth project at the end of undergraduate study to a pass degree and as a bridge between undergraduate study and advanced research. While it does offer, through seminar options, the chance to complete coverage of a discipline, it aims primarily to provide depth of study, developing sophisticated analysis and research skills in a specialised area of interest.

Honours can be taken in a single area of study, across two majors (Combined Honours) or between faculties (Joint Honours).

Honours is the most direct pathway to further academic research; a class II division 2 (II.2) is the minimum requirement for entry into an MA research or PhD program. As such, the Honours year provides:

training in research skills and in information systems (archives, the Library, databases, electronic research networks)
opportunity to practise articulating complex ideas orally and in writing, experience in working closely with a supervisor on a project and in preparing a major project to meet a deadline
experience in devising, researching and writing up an individual topic of study in an extended argument/thesis.