Bachelor of Applied Science Honours

Aims

The Honours course provides the opportunity for students:

to learn to conceive, plan and carry to completion a discrete piece of original research, under the close supervision of a professional in the field;

to critically review special topics of relevance to applied ecology in greater depth than would be possible at third-year undergraduate level;

to gain exposure to an active research environment, to interact with research staff and to participate in discussion on current controversial issues in science.

Admission Requirements

Bachelor's degree gained in a relevant area of science from any recognized tertiary institution with a high standard of performance in the major area of proposed study (average of Credit or higher at 2nd year and 3rd year level), plus agreement of a staff member to supervise the project and approval of the Director of the Institute for Applied Ecology.

Offer of Place

Candidates that meet the admission requirements are selected for entry on the basis of merit. Places are restricted. To be considered for entry, applicants should ensure that they have discussed potential projects with a member of academic staff, and obtained agreement from that member of staff to supervise the project. Applications without the support of a supervisor will not be successful.

Duration

The Honours course is of 9.5 months duration and is normally taken full-time. A mid-year start is possible, enabling projects with a substantial field work component to include summer. Honours candidates are advised that failure to begin by 1 February may put at risk their eligibility for Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) and UC Scholarships should they wish to continue their studies at PhD level in the year following Honours completion. This is because of the need to have your Honours result available by late November.

Level

Although the course is the major pathway to a postgraduate degree by research, its level is undergraduate (H), which enables Australian students to apply for government allowances.

Curriculum

Honours students are expected to engage in the following activities which form the basis of assessment of their performance.

Undertake a critical review of the literature on their research topic, with particular attention paid to current issues and conflicts of theory, practice and opinion (assessable)

Prepare a detailed research proposal (optionally assessable)

Undertake a research project and prepare a thesis of a maximum of 30,000 words (assessable)

Present an open seminar on the results of their research (required, optionally assessable)

Submit a 2,000 to 3,500 word essay on an agreed topic which is not their project topic (assessable)

Actively participate in the weekly journal sessions currently run by the Institute for Applied Ecology, including formally taking the lead in at least one of these sessions (requirement, optionally assessable)

Attend the weekly research seminars held in the School of Resource, Heritage and Environmental Sciences (non-assessable requirement)

Undertake coursework as directed by their supervisor(s) on topics where there is a perceived deficiency or a special need. Such coursework may, for example, consist of discrete modules from existing statistical or computing units.

Students meet with their supervisor(s) in the first week of their program to discuss and finalise a work program (the Honours contract), including all of the above elements, and identifying which are to be assessable. The contract is sent to the Honours Convener no later than two weeks into the program.

Assessment

The thesis, essay and literature review will be formally assessable for all students enrolled in the course. The research seminar, journal sessions, attendance at seminars and the coursework components are requirements that may be assessable at the discretion of the supervisor(s). The assessment value given to each of these activities will be subject to negotiations between student and his/her supervisor(s) and subject to the approval of the Course Convener. This allows assessment to be tailored to the specific program of each student. Assessment values are to be decided at the time of drawing up the work program (i.e. in the first week of the program), on the proviso that the thesis itself have an assessment value of 75% or 80%.

The work program will contain a fixed deadline for the submission of the thesis, in October for the January intake and June for the mid-year intake, to mesh with the closing dates for applications for Australian Postgraduate Awards and University of Canberra scholarships.

Theses will be examined by two examiners, both may be internal or external to the University. Students will be graded overall assessment on the following scale according to criteria set for the Honours program as a whole.

First Class

Second Class (Division I)

Second Class (Division II)

Third Class

Fail

Application & Enrolment

The closing date for applications for the main round for semester 1 or 2 is 31 October and for semester 2 is 31 May. The final round closing dates are 1 February and 6 July respectively.

Students enrol each semester in one of the following units as appropriate:

#4773 Research Honours in Applied Science: FT

#4774 Research Honours in Applied Science: PT