• Section 1 - Purpose and Context
• Section 2 - Definitions
• Section 3 - Policy Statement
• Part A - The Degree
• Nomenclature for Degrees
• Honours Degree - General
• Embedded Honours Degree and the "Honours Component of the Degree"
• Embedded Honours Degree - Additional or Alternative Study Requirements
• Component Structure for Honours Component of the Degree
• Part B - Students
• Admission
• English Requirements
• Enrolment
• Examination of Significant Research Component, or Equivalent (EG Thesis, Sole Authored Journal Article plus Research Chapter, or combination of Written and other Media)
• Section 4 - Procedures
• Section 5 - Guidelines

Section 1 - Purpose and Context

(1) This policy has been developed for the purpose of assisting the Colleges of University of Western Sydney in the development of their respective Honours Degrees. The policy is designed to assist University of Western Sydney toward having more equitable, consistent and high quality Honours degrees. The University also wishes to use this policy to reduce the number of Honours awards by grouping like areas together.

(2) This policy pertains to Embedded Honours degrees only.

(3) In special circumstances, Schools and Colleges may request variations to these rules for Embedded Honours degrees, which need to be endorsed by the Research Studies Committee and the Courses Approvals Committee before being submitted to the Academic Senate for approval.

Section 2 - Definitions

(4) Nil.

Section 3 - Policy Statement

Part A - The Degree

Nomenclature for Degrees

(5) The nomenclature of the generic Embedded Honours degrees is aligned with the new University of Western Sydney undergraduate programs. Discipline can be indicated on the first line of the testamur. The nomenclature should reflect the broad area of study or key program area, such as "business", "science", "contemporary arts", or "humanities".

(6) If a departure from the new University of Western Sydney undergraduate nomenclature is required, then specific approval should be sought from Courses Approval Committee.

Honours Degree - General

(7) Embedded Honours Degrees are regarded, primarily, as a Research Training Degree.

Embedded Honours Degree and the "Honours Component of the Degree"

(8) The "Honours Component of the Degree" requires the completion of no more than 80 Credit Points (Range 60-80 credit points). The Honours Component of the Degree should be carefully stipulated and the award of Honours will not be granted without the completion of all stipulated requirements.

Embedded Honours Degree - Additional or Alternative Study Requirements

(9) Embedded Honours Degrees may be awarded upon the successful completion of additional study as the Honours Component of the Degree. In this case, the Honours Component of the Degree requires students to successfully complete additional study than that completed by non-Honours students embedded throughout the degree, within the 80-credit point limit.

(10) Embedded Honours Degrees may also be awarded upon the successful completion of alternative study as the Honours Component of the Degree. In this case, the Honours Component of the Degree requires students to successfully complete alternative (different) study than that completed by non-Honours students. In this case, the Honours Component of the Degree may also be undertaken during the fourth year, or embedded throughout the entire degree, within the 80-credit point limit.

(11) For both additional and alternative Honours Component of the Degree, the study required is regarded, primarily, as a Research Training Experience.

Component Structure for Honours Component of the Degree

(12) The Honours Component of the Degree requires the following structure in the interests of providing a high quality research training degree experience, and protecting University of Western Sydney against potential litigation and complaints:

1. Research Support Section. This will normally consist of three constituent elements (included within a range of 10-20 credit points). These three elements may either be incorporated as specific Research Support Section Unit(s) or incorporated elsewhere in the degree in other coursework units. However, the following three research elements must appear somewhere in the specified Honours Component of the Degree:
   1. Formal Research Proposal. This proposal can be included as part of a 10 credit point Research Support Section Unit or integrated into another 10 credit point Coursework Unit.
   2. Ethics Approval from the Human Ethics Review Committee (HERC). This proposal, where required, may also be included, either as part of a 10 credit point Research Support Section Unit or integrated elsewhere into another 10 credit point Coursework Unit. The ethics proposal component of any coursework, wherever it is integrated should be graded as a "threshold" award, that is, satisfactorily completed or not. No marks should be awarded for the successful completion of the ethics proposal. However, the ethics proposal must be completed satisfactorily prior to the fieldwork commencing. Finally, the currency of the study must be demonstrated prior to fieldwork commencing. N.B. Any project requiring external ethics approval should be strongly discouraged because of the short time frame required for the student to complete their Honours degree.
   3. Research Seminar Attendance and Participation. Once again, this component may be included, either as a 10 credit point Research Support Section Unit or integrated into another 10-credit point coursework unit. The seminar attendance is designed to raise the profile of Honours research and give students experience in presenting their work for feedback and critique. It may take the form of:
      1. A School or College Work in Progress Review; or,
      2. A Conference Presentation or Publication; or,
      3. Another form of seminar or colloquium presentation, as specified by the School or College.
2. A Significant Research Component, or Equivalent (Range from 40-70 Credit Points). There are several alternatives, each of which may comprise this component of the degree. Credit points should be allocated to reflect the amount of work required. Schools and colleges may choose from each of the three alternatives:
   1. A written thesis. The thesis may vary in length according to the credit points allocated. As a guide, a 60-credit point thesis might range in length between 15,000-20,000 words. A 40-credit point thesis might range in length between 8,000-12,000 words. However, submissions may vary in length from these guidelines. Emphasis for the written thesis should not be on the thesis length but, rather, on the innovation, quality and excellence of the submission, with attention being given to careful editing, the quality of the written work, grammar, spelling, referencing and citations, the research process and outcomes, and demonstrated evidence of high quality research training outcomes (Range 40-70 credit points); or
   2. A sole authored journal article of 3,000-8,000 words. The document to be examined may be in the form/style of a journal manuscript ready for submission to a relevant peer-reviewed journal. This does not assume journal submission of the document, nor does it assume or endorse sole-authorship of the subsequent journal article/s;
   3. A combination of written and other media. This option would include a substantial body of creative practical work with accompanying scholarly exegesis and written documentation, ranging between 5,000 - 10,000 words. Typical examples of the other media used may include exhibition, performance, novel, film, computer program etc. Where creative practical work is undertaken, consideration must be given to the permanence of the work. While it is acknowledged that a performance cannot be replicated, it can be recorded via a script or a video of the work. Attention should be paid to how the practical work will be recorded, with copies being held with the written exegesis (Range 40-70 credit points).
3. Coursework Component. Units included in the Coursework Component of the Honours Component of the Degree may include: undergraduate coursework units currently offered in the degree (ideally at 2nd and 3rd year (200-300) Level), Honours (500) Level coursework units, or Postgraduate (700) Level coursework units.

(13) If the sections above for 12 (a) Research Support Section [including (i) Formal Research Proposal, (ii) Human Ethics Research Committee approval, and (iii) Research Seminar Attendance and Participation], are all included within the 12 (a) Research Support Section, then additional coursework components of the Honours Component of the Degree, if included, should not exceed two coursework units or 20 Credit Points. (Range 10-20 Credit Points).

(14) However, if sections 12 (a) (i), (ii) and (iii) are incorporated into existing coursework units, the maximum coursework component of the Honours Component of the Degree may not exceed 40 credit points (Range 10-40 Credit Points).

(15) Undergraduate coursework components selected from the degree to form part of the Honours Component of the Degree can be drawn from anywhere in the degree. However, ideally, these units will be drawn from study during semesters 5, 6, 7 and 8 in a four-year degree (or equivalent). The coursework components may also include advanced research methods subjects. It is recommended that students study research methods prior to their entry into the Honours Component of the Degree.

Part B - Students

Admission

(16) Where students in the Honours Component of the Degree are streamed, streaming into the Honours Component of the Degree is based on a Grade Point Average calculation of greater than a Credit Average, that is, greater than 5.0 (refer to University of Western Sydney Calendar). This calculation may is generally taken over all semesters up until the point at which the Honours Component of the Degree commences. However, depending on requirements or specific circumstances, the calculation may be taken over the year prior to the commencement of the Honours Component of the Degree, or selected units, depending on requirements or specific circumstances as approved by the College Research Committee. Reference should be made to the University of Western Sydney Policy on Honours Admission located in the University of Western Sydney Calendar.

(17) Admission to the Honours Component of the Degree is subject to the availability of suitable supervisors and other resources.

(18) Identification of candidates and streaming into the Honours Component of the Degree should commence no earlier than the beginning of Semester 3 for full-time students (or beginning of second year), or the equivalent for part-time students.

(19) It is essential that students be adequately trained in the appropriate research methods required to undertake their research. This can be achieved in three ways. First, students may complete their research methods training prior to the commencement of the Honours Component of the Degree. Secondly, research methods units may comprise part of the Honours Component of the Degree. Thirdly, clearly identified research components of multiple coursework units may be used to demonstrate an adequate Honours research preparation. Appropriate research methods should be made available to students as early in the Honours Component of the Degree as practicable, so that students are able to complete the Formal Research Proposal and, if required, gain Ethics Approval from the Human Ethics Review Committee (HERC) at the University of Western Sydney in a timely manner.

(20) Prospective students should submit an initial, brief (maximum of 1000 words) written statement about the proposed research as part of the streaming process.

(21) Honour's supervisors are to be recorded on the Honours supervisor register. Normally, Honours student principal or sole supervisors should be qualified to PhD or Master's (Honours) level, as well as having an established publishing and research track record. The minimum requirement to supervise an Honours student is Honours Class I or Honours Class II Division I. Honour's supervisors are required to undertake supervisor training.

(22) Students external to the University of Western Sydney who wish to undertake the Honours Component of the Degree may make application by submitting a case demonstrating their successful completion of equivalent undergraduate coursework study at another institution. Reciprocal standing will be given to students seeking to enrol at the University of Western Sydney for the Honours Component of the Degree where equivalent undergraduate coursework study in the discipline can be established as being commensurate with other students entering the Honours Component of the Degree. All other admission criteria apply to such applications.

English Requirements

(23) Admission for International students, where English is not the first language or was not the medium of instruction in the applicant's secondary or tertiary studies, will be dependent on the specified English proficiency requirements detailed on the UWS International website. An offer of admission to an Embedded Honours Degree, at any point throughout the degree program, will be dependent upon International students demonstrating their proficiency in the English language by achieving a prescribed level in an approved English examination or test.

(24) The English Language proficiency requirements for International student applicants may be reviewed at the UWS International web page.

Enrolment

(25) Enrolment in the Honours Component of the Degree can be completed concurrently with or at the completion of the undergraduate coursework (non-Honours) elements of the degree. Students may enrol full-time or part-time. It should be noted, particularly with part-time enrolments, that some units in the Honours Component of the Degree might not always be available.

(26) Normally, it is expected that students will complete the Honours Component of the degree, that is the specified Units (Range between 60-80 credit points) that have been stipulated as comprising the Honours Component of the Degree, at any time during the entire degree program. For full time students, this would normally extend over four years (for a 4 year FTE degree). For part time students, the entire degree would normally extend over 8 years (for a 4 year FTE degree). Embedded Honours Degrees extending beyond 4 years will require equivalent completion times for full-time and part-time students.

(27) Students may apply to the College for an extension, to a maximum of 0.5 EFTSU.

Examination of Significant Research Component, or Equivalent (EG Thesis, Sole Authored Journal Article plus Research Chapter, or combination of Written and other Media)

(28) A compulsory thesis submission date of the Significant Thesis Research Component should be determined in the College that will allow sufficient time for examination and timely submission of grades, so that students may be eligible to apply for scholarships and RTS funded higher research degree places during the ranking process. This submission date should be mid-October.

(29) Final grades for Honours students should be lodged with the Office of the Academic Registrar (OAR) by 7th December so that Honours students' results may be included for review and ranking of scholarship applications.

(30) To calculate the Honours Award, two parts of the Honours Component of the Degree are considered: "Honours Coursework" and "Honours Research". The "Honours Coursework" calculation includes all coursework units, including research methods, the formal research proposal, ethics approval, and research seminar attendance, as they are structured in the Honours Component of the Degree. For the purposes of this policy, calculation of the "Honours Coursework" may include relevant components from 12 (a)(i), (ii) and (iii); and 12 (c) above. For the purposes of this policy, calculation of the "Honours Research" component may include any one of the three research options included in 12 (b)(i), (ii) or (iii) included in the Honours Component of the Degree.

(31) The award of Honours Class I requires achievement within the range of 85-100% in both the total for "Honours Research" and the total for "Honours Coursework" component(s). The final grade will be weighted according to the credit point allocation in the degree. For example, if 20 credit points are allocated to "coursework" component(s) and 60 credit points to the "research" component, then the weighting for final Honours grade will be 25:75. If 40 credit points are allocated to "coursework" and 40 credit points to the "research", then the weighting will be 50:50. Calculations should be based on actual marks awarded for each component of the degree.

1. Honours Class I requires achievement within the range of 85-100%.
2. Honours Class II Division I requires achievement within the range of 75-84%.
3. Honours Class II Division II requires achievement within the range of 65-74%.
4. Honours Class III requires achievement within the range of 50-64%.

(32) Normally, there are two examiners of the Honours thesis Research Component. Examiners normally include one internal and one external examiner. For all examiners, internal or external, the School is to provide evidence of quality assurance. Internal examiners may be drawn from any School or College at the University of Western Sydney. Where there are significant discrepancies in the marks awarded for the research component, the College Research Committee will appoint an additional examiner to remark the research component.

(33) Normally, the supervisor(s) will not be the examiner(s) of the thesis Research Component or involved in the examination in any way, without the approval of the College Research Committee.

(34) A supervisor(s) report may be submitted for consideration by the examiners.

Section 4 - Procedures

(35) Nil.

Section 5 - Guidelines

(36) Nil.