Skip to content | Change text size
 

Introduction

The Honours degree of Bachelor of Science, henceforth the ‘Bachelor of Science (Honours)’, is the normal point of entry for undergraduate students who seek either an introduction to research studies in a science area of study or appropriate specialised training for a career as a professional scientist.

The Bachelor of Science (Honours) and the related tagged courses are managed by the Faculty of Science. These guidelines, policies and procedures are intended to apply to the science ‘honours program’ which is offered through all of the following approved courses:

  • Bachelor of Science (Honours) at the Clayton and Gippsland campuses
  • Bachelor of Science (Science Scholars Program) (Honours) at the Clayton and Gippsland campuses
  • Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology) (Honours) at the Sunway campus
  • Bachelor of Science (Medical Bioscience) (Honours) at the Sunway campus

as well as students undertaking the honours year in science within one of the related Bachelor of Science double-degree courses. Unless stated otherwise in the course proposal, they are also intended to apply to any one-year ‘tagged’ honours courses that are subsequently approved by the Faculty of Science.

Where relevant to the requirements and assessment for the same units, the guidelines are also applicable to the fourth year of the Bachelor of Science Advanced with Honours course and to the fourth year of the Bachelor of Environmental course, where students choose to undertake an Honours year. Where relevant to assessment of units and projects, they are applicable to the current 24-point level-four project unit which is offered for the Bachelor of Environmental Science course, taking into account the relative workload and weighting of that unit.

The guidelines and policies are also broadly applicable to the Master of Science (Preliminary) course as where students in that course undertake similar activities and assessment they should be as comparable as possible with those for equivalent students in the Honours degree of Bachelor of Science. However, where there is any ambiguity, they do not override the separate approved policies for the Master of Science (Preliminary) course. (Approved by the Faculty of Science Board at meeting 04/04)

1.1 Scope of these guidelines

In accordance with university Statute 6.1.2 – Courses and Degrees and the university Honours Year Programs Policy and the associated Honours Year Programs Procedures, the faculty has responsibility for:

  • making recommendations on course proposals;
  • determining requirements for entry into honours programs;
  • providing formal organisational and administrative structures for the honours program involving either a co-ordinator or an Honours Course Committee;
  • monitoring the structure and coherence of the honours course offerings;
  • monitoring the effectiveness of the supervision provided;
  • establishing explicit criteria for the assessment of theses, including definitions of performance at the various grades of honours;
  • monitoring assessment procedures;
  • ensuring where there are significant and distinct components of the honours program, with a start and finish date, that these receive a separate assessment including both a mark and grade;
  • ensuring the individual components within an honours program are identified as separate units and allocated points in multiples of six, where possible and appropriate;
  • approving honours project proposals and the associated supervision.

In effect some of these responsibilities are delegated to schools/departments – these guidelines are intended to make clear the relative responsibilities of schools/departments and the Faculty of Science.

An index of where the university Honours Year Programs Policy and the associated Procedures are addressed in these guidelines is provided in ‘Appendix 1 - Relevant university policies and procedures’.

1.2 Sources of information

In drafting this paper, a range of published sources of information have also been used, to clarify university and faculty policies and responsibilities, and to inform the drafting of these guidelines of good practice.

Some sources of information include:

Relevant government and AV-CC guidelines

Relevant university policies and procedures

Relevant Faculty of Science policies and guidelines 2000-2004

  • FEC meeting 05/99 – Repeating subjects to meet honours requirements
  • FEC meeting 02/00 – Honours eligibility
  • FEC meeting 03/00 – Structure of BSc honours courses (and ‘oral defence’)
  • FEC meeting 05/00 – Subjects accepted for honours
  • FEC meeting 05/00 – Board of Examiners – guidelines for conduct and responsibilities
  • FEC meeting 02/01 – Honours entry requirements
  • FEC meeting 01/02 – Honours research thesis assessment guidelines
  • FEC meeting 02/02 – Student transfers from Germany to third year and honours
  • FEC meeting 05/02 – Major amendment to the ‘Honours degree of Bachelor of Science’
  • FEC meeting 05/02 – Additional honours admission requirement
  • FEC meeting 01/04 – Guidelines for evaluation of undergraduate science units