Honours - Faculty of Health Sciences

1 year FT (or equivalent PT). Midyear intake available in select degrees

An honours program enables you to build upon the knowledge gained during the first years of your bachelor degree, develops your research skills to better equip you for future higher degree level study, and provides an opportunity to work closely with an academic expert and contribute to a particular interest area. Each honours student will work with (an) academic supervisor/s to complete the thesis component of the program, meeting with their supervisor/s at least fortnightly. The final thesis is to be between 12,000 and 15,000 words in length.

Additional fourth year honours programs

These programs are available to high-achieving students who have already completed a bachelor's degree in the relevant discipline with a GPA of 5.5 or greater on the ACU seven-point scale.

Bachelor of Applied Public Health (Honours)
Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours)
Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science (Honours)
Bachelor of High Performance Sport (Honours)
Bachelor of Midwifery (Honours)
Bachelor of Nursing (Honours)
Bachelor of Nutrition Science (Honours)
Bachelor of Paramedicine (Honours)
Bachelor of Physical Activity and Health Science (Honours)
Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours)
Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)*

*An embedded honours psychology program. GPA conditions apply.

Sample program map

Yr 4 Sem 1 Research methods in health sciences Preparing for research in health sciences Qualitative Research Methods in Health Sciences
OR
Quantitative Data Management in Health Sciences Research
Honours thesis Part A
Yr 4 Sem 2 Honours thesis Part B

Embedded honours programs

To be eligible for an embedded honours program, you must have achieved a GPA of 5.5 or greater on the ACU seven-point scale in the first years of the degree.

Allied Health

Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours)
Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours)
Bachelor of Social Work (Honours)
Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours)

To be eligible to apply for admission to an Honours program in Allied Health, a student must have completed 160 cp from years 1 and 2 with a grade point average of at least 5.5 on the ACU seven point scale.

To qualify for the an Honours program in Allied Health, a student must complete 320 cp from the Schedule of Unit Offerings in OT, Physiotherapy, Social Work or Speech Pathology.

As well as developing more advanced professional knowledge and skills, students will learn how to undertake research - from data collection to data management and analysis, and will learn and apply project management skills to ensure their project is effectively and ethically conducted, managed, analyses and presented. Students will write a comprehensive literature review that justifies the need for the research project. This work will culminate in the preparation of a final dissertation where students will be expected to finalise their literature review and prepare their manuscript for publication, reporting on the study and the methodology used. Students present their research findings at a student conference at the end of their final year.

Psychology

Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)* -- (additional fourth year also available)

The first three years of the Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) are equivalent to ACU's Bachelor of Psychological Science and the fourth year is equivalent to ACU's Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons). To complete the Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), students must meet progression requirements (at the end of second year have an overall GPA of 5.5 on ACU's Grade point average and at the end of third year have maintained an overall GPA of 5.5 and have at least 6 Distinctions in the specified psychology units). Students who do not meet the requirements to progress to either the third or fourth year, are eligible to transfer to the Bachelor of Psychological Science in order to graduate with that degree.

In their fourth year students will be introduced to key issues and ethics in professional psychology and will gain an advanced level of understanding of assessment tools and intervention strategies that underpin psychological practice. Students will gain advanced knowledge of statistical analysis and skills in conducting, interpreting and reporting those analyses. They will then develop, conduct and write up their research report in the form of a research article which they will present at the School's research conference at the end of their final year.

Yr 4 Sem 1 Honours thesis A Research methods Assessment in Psychological Practice: Foundation Skills and Professional Issues
Yr 4 Sem 2 Honours thesis B Psychological Interventions: Theory, Foundational Strategies and Professional Issues Fourth year psychology elective
“The strong ethical values embedded in the culture of ACU helped shape my attitude towards the delivery of quality care.”
Asmara Jammali-Blasi
Bachelor of Nursing (Honours)

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