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Future Students> Undergraduate> Honours> Getting in

Getting in to the Honours Year

If you think that you will achieve a credit average in at least five level III mathematics courses you should consider an Honours degree. The Honours year introduces you to recent knowledge and current research. It consists not only of advanced lecture topics but also of an Honours thesis. The lectures attempt to bring you near the frontier of each area, with the Honours lecturers generally presenting material in areas to which they are contributing new knowledge. The Honours year is taken in one of Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, Statistics, or jointly with Admission to Honours To enter Honours Mathematics, students must have either:

In addition, students will normally be required to have a credit average in their Level III Mathematics courses and to have shown some evidence of the ability to undertake independent study. Students must also have permission of the Head of the appropriate Department. To obtain this permission, you should, as early as possible, consult with the appropriate Departmental Honours Coordinator:

In order that you have sufficient background to attempt the courses in the Honours year, it is recommended that you discuss your selection of Level III courses with your Departmental Honours Coordinator or another academic adviser. For Honours in Pure Mathematics, students must normally take a significant number of their Level II and III Mathematics courses at the Higher level.

The programs of many of our students (such as joint degree students) require careful planning, so please drop by and see one of the coordinators for a chat whenever you need advice - even if your Honours year is many years away.

Honours students enrol full-time or part-time in one of the Honours programs:

Other students who are sufficiently well prepared may enrol in individual Honours courses under the course number.

The University has allocated funds to support Scholarships for students embarking on an "add-on" Honours year of study. In recent years more than 30 scholarships valued at $1,000 each have been awarded on the basis of academic merit. The closing date is typically the end of November.

In addition, there is the Buchwald Award in Applied Mathematics (1 scholarship, up to $400 pa, is available for a student in the final year of Honours Applied Mathematics), and The George Szekeres Award (1 scholarship, up to $300 pa, is available to students entering the final year of Honours Pure Mathematics). Application forms are available from the Scholarships and Student Loans Unit (c/- Student Centre, Lower Ground Floor, Chancellery), and the generic form will be fine. The closing date is the end of March.

External Transfers

Students who are interested in transferring to UNSW to complete the Honours year should consult the appropriate Honours coordinator as soon as possible to ascertain whether this is feasible. Because our Honours courses are based around the background knowledge obtained in the first three years of the UNSW degree, even students with excellent 3 year degrees from elsewhere sometimes lack the background to attempt a full quota of courses. In such cases we often recommend that students complete an extra semester at UNSW before starting Honours in order to fill in some of the missing prerequisites.