Honours Degree

Students who attain a sufficient standard in the pass degree may be admitted to the Honours year to become candidates for the degree with Honours. Science has an Honours committee which ensures comparability of standards across different Honours programs in the Colleges.

The minimum requirements for admission to an Honours program other than BSc(Forestry) (Hons) or specified honours programs are as follows:

1. the successful completion of 144 units including at least 48 units of Group B or Group C courses relevant to the proposed field of honours study, of which at least 24 units must be Group C courses
2. the attainment of an average of 2 for the 48 units, where HD = 4, D = 3, CR = 2, P = 0
3. the recommendation of the Head of Department/ School concerned, in the light of availability of resources and appropriate supervision.

Departments may have additional entry requirements and intending Honours students should contact the relevant honours convener.

The work of the Honours year will consist of advanced work in a selected field of study, details of which are given under the individual departments or schools. The Honours program has specific dates which are advertised in the Honours Handbook. Students who complete the requirements for the pass degree at the end of the first semester, if admitted to Honours, may, with the approval of the department or school concerned, commence the program mid-year.

Graduates of other universities may be accepted for admission to Honours candidature provided that the undergraduate program and performance in the program are of a standard comparable to that applying in the relevant Department/School.

Fields of study in which a degree with Honours may be
taken are:

ASTR4005 or MATH4005 or PHYS4003 Astronomy and Astrophysics*

BIOL4001 Biology

CHEM4005 Chemistry

COMP4005 Computer Science

ENVS4005 Resource and Environmental Management

ENVS4015 Geography

ENVS4025 Human Ecology

ENVS4035 or ENVS4045 or ENVS4055 Forestry**

EMSC4005 Geology

EMSC4008 Physics of the Earth

MATH4005 Mathematics

MATH4009 Computational Science

NEUR4005 Neuroscience

PHYS4003 Physics

PHYS4004 Theoretical Physics

PSYC4005 Psychology

SCOM4005 Science Communication

STAT4005 Statistics

* The code depends on whether the Honours year is undertaken in the Department of Mathematics or the Department of Physics or both
** The code depends on whether the Honours year is taken as part of the BSc, BSc(Res&EnvMan) or BSc(Forestry) degrees. Concurrent Honours is also possible in the fourth year of the BSc (Forestry) degree

Details of codes are given in the Course Summary section.

Students commencing Honours in first semester should enrol in both first and second semester. Students commencing Honours in second semester should only enrol for that semester. Students will be advised when to enrol for the following year.

The Colleges have an Honours handbook giving broad information applicable across both Colleges, including general criteria for the awarding of grades. The Honours Handbook is at http://science.anu.edu.au/Honours/index.php.

Both concurrent and fifth year honours are available in the course for the degree of Bachelor of Science (Forestry). For concurrent Honours, students must have completed all first-year courses; maintained at least a credit average in Group B and C courses; demonstrated superior achievement (D, HD) in subjects relevant to the topic in which they propose to undertake Honours; are in the fourth year of the BSc(Forestry) degree and maintain a full-time load. For fifth year Forestry Honours, the minimum entry requirement is at least four grades of Distinction and eight grades of Credit in relevant Group B and C courses with an overall minimum average of 65 per cent.

The information published on the Study at ANU 2011 website applies to the 2011 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2010 website.