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The changing nature of the Honours Australian National University, Australia
University of Canberra, Australia
University of Canberra, Australia
Within Australian universities the results of Honours have traditionally been used as the main entry requirement into a research degree and as a means for ranking for research scholarships. Despite the critical role of Honours, particularly with regard to postgraduate research, there is little in the way of research about Honours. The authors contend that there is an untested assumption that the universities offering honours programs, the staff teaching them, and the students undertaking them share common assumptions about their purpose. To test this assumption the researchers undertook a small, pilot study across five Australian universities, with the aim of identifying:
• the extent to which staff and students in different disciplines and different universities held varying views about the purpose of the Honours and
• the extent to which these views influence the types of Honours programs offered.
Honours coordinators and students in the sample universities were interviewed and the web sites, handbooks and calendars of the five universities examined. The results indicate that indeed the aims of an Honours program and the reasons for enrolling in Honours do vary. However, more significantly there have been identifiable changes in the structure and nature of Honours programs over recent years that may not support some of the traditionally held views of Honours, particularly as a selection mechanism of enrolment in, and scholarship ranking for, higher degree by research. (In this study Honours refers to the additional, generally fourth, year of an undergraduate degree for which students are selected) | |||||