Program

Advanced Mathematics - 3986

Program Summary

Faculty: Faculty of Science

Contact: http://www.science.unsw.edu.au

Campus: Kensington Campus

Career: Undergraduate

Typical Duration: 4 Years

Typical UOC Per Semester: 24

Min UOC Per Semester: 3

Max UOC Per Semester: 27

Min UOC For Award: 192

UAC Code: 429014

ATAR: 95.30  

International Entry Requirements: See International Entry Requirements

Award(s):

Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) (Honours)

Information valid for students commencing 2013.
Students who commenced prior to 2013 should go to the Handbook's Previous Editions

Program Description

A four-year degree leading to the potential award of honours based on overall performance. The degree will incorporate a single major and a research project. The degree program divides into four groups covering discipline-specific technical content, research project, free electives and the general education components.

Whereas the development of depth of understanding in pure and applied areas of mathematics and practical skills in specific disciplines are essential, the degree will also focus on instilling a culture of research and enquiry through early induction into the research ethos and access to research groups and facilities.

Program Objectives and Graduate Attributes

This program has been designed to:
  1. Graduate Mathematicians and Statisticians with both breadth and depth of mathematics, statistics and scientific knowledge and professional skills;
  2. Develop the capacity for critical thinking and independent learning;
  3. Provide training in the practice and management of research and instill a research ethos;
  4. Endue general and science-specific graduate attributes;
  5. Expose students to disciplines outside mathematics and science, and the social context of science.

Program Structure

When completing the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) as a single degree, students must complete a minimum of 192 units of credit. This 192 units of credit is comprised of:
TOTAL OF 192 UOC  144 UOC
* An approved Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) major; and
* SCIF1121 or SCIF1131;
* 48 units of credit Honours Year; and
* Science elective courses 1 ('Science' courses are defined in Table 1 below.)
 36 UOC  * Free electives1: these courses can be taken from any Faculty of the university.  
 12 UOC  * General Education courses: these courses cannot be Science courses.

  1. Note: The Quantitative Risk major is a large multi-disciplinary major which is comprised of 114 units of credit. The Quantitative Risk major (114 UOC) plus SCIF1121/1131 (6 UOC) plus Honours (48 UOC) is a total of 168 UOC. Therefore students nominating to take a major in Quantitative Risk will not be required to take any additional science courses, and will only have 12 units of credit of free electives available.
Where a student studies the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) concurrently with another UNSW undergraduate degree program, they are required to complete a minimum of 144 units of credit comprised of an approved Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) major, SCIF1121/1131, Honours, and science elective courses, ie. the blue coloured area in the table above.

Single Degree Program Rules

Academic rules relating to the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) are as follows:

   1.  Students in the single degree program must complete a minimum of 192 units of credit.

   2.  Students must complete exactly one approved Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) major, and this must be declared before enrolling in level III courses. Students cannot undertake a double major in this program. Information on how to declare a major can be found on the Science Student Centre website.

   3.   Approved majors in the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) program are:
*Enrolment in the Quantitative Risk major requires permission from the Head of School of Mathematics and Statistics.

   4.   SCIF1121 Advanced Science: Professional Perspective and Practice (6 units of credit) or SCIF1131 Science: Technological and Professional Perspectives (6 units of credit) must be completed in first year.

   5.  An Honours Year of 48 units of credit must be completed. For information regarding the admission requirements and application process for honours, please see the information below under 'Honours'.

   6.   In addition to the courses required for a student's chosen major, SCIF1121/1131, and honours, students must take 'science' courses so that the major plus SCIF1121/1131, plus Honours year plus 'science' courses total 144 units of credit.

Majors in the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) range from 84 units of credit to 114 units of credit. Honours is 48 units of credit, and SCIF1121/1131 is 6 units of credit, therefore students will typically need to take 0 - 6 units of credit of additional 'science' courses. This additional science course may need to be at level I depending on whether a major satisfies rule 7 below.

'Science' courses are courses offered by the following Schools. The course prefixes that are associated with each School are in bold below:

Table 1: Definition of 'Science' courses
 Aviation  AVIA
 Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences  BIOS, BEES, CLIM, GEOS, IEST, MSCI,  ENVS
 Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences  BABS, BIOC, BIOT, MICR
 Chemistry  CHEM
 Computer Science  COMP
 Food Science  FOOD
 Materials Science and Engineering  MATS
 Mathematics and Statistics  MATH
 Medical Sciences  ANAT, NEUR, PATH, PHAR, PHSL
 Psychology  PSYC
 Physics  PHYS
 Optometry and Vision Science  OPTM, VISN
 Science Faculty  SCIF, BSSM

   7.  Students must complete at least 24 units of credit of 'science' level I courses.

Typically Advanced Mathematics majors already contain 24 units of credit of science level I courses, therefore, no further level I science courses are required. However, where a major does not already meet this requirement, additional level I science courses will need to be taken. These science level I courses count towards the 144 units of credit requirement at rule number 6.

   8.  A minimum of 30 units of credit of level III courses must be completed.

Typically Advanced Mathematics majors contain 18 -30 units of credit of level III courses. Therefore students may be required to take an additional 0-12 units of credit of level III courses which must be 'science' courses such that a total of 30 units of credit at level III is completed. These additional level III courses should be completed in a student's major area of study, or a complementary area that will be beneficial for a student's chosen honours area. Students completing a double major will typically meet this requirement through completion of level III courses for the second major. These additional level III science courses count towards the 144 units of credit requirement at rule number 6 above.

   9.   12 units of credit of general education must be taken and these may be taken at any stage in a student's program.

Students must follow the UNSW rules for general education. Any course defined as a 'science' course in Table 1, cannot be taken as general education. Furthermore, students doing the Quantitative Risk major can not take any general education courses offered by the Australian School of Business. Any exceptions to these rules must be approved by the Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programs) or nominee.

   10.   A maximum of 72 units of credit of level I courses can be taken, including any GEN#### course or mainstream level I course taken to fulfil the 12 UOC general education requirement.

   11.  No student may commence level II courses until 30 units of credit of level I courses have been successfully completed.

   12.   Students may commence level III courses upon successful completion of 72 units of credit.

   13.   Progression to stages 2, 3, and 4 is subject to academic performance. Students will be required to attain a weighted average mark (WAM) of 70 in each semester. Where students do not maintain this minimum level of academic performance, they will be transferred to the Bachelor of Science program.

Dual Degree Program Rules

Where a student undertakes a Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) degree program concurrently with another undergraduate degree at UNSW, the program rules for the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) are as follows (for further information regarding each rule, please refer to the relevant rule for the single degree program as listed above):

   1.  Students must complete a minimum of 144 units of credit;

   2.  Students must complete exactly one approved Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) major, and this must be declared before enrolling in level III courses;

   3.  SCIF1121 Advanced Science: Professional Perspective and Practice (6 units of credit) or SCIF1131 Science: Technological and Professional Perspectives (6 units of credit) must be completed in first year.

   4.  An Honours Year of 48 units of credit must be completed. For information regarding the admission requirements and application process for honours, please see the information under 'Honours';

   5.  In addition to the courses required for a student's chosen major, SCIF1121/1131, and honours, students must take 'science' courses so that the major plus SCIF1121/1131, plus Honours year plus 'science' courses total 144 units of credit;

   6.  Students must complete at least 24 units of credit of 'science' level I courses;

   7.   A minimum of 30 units of credit of level III courses must be completed;

   8.  No student may commence level II courses until 30 units of credit of level I courses have been successfully completed.

   9.  Students may commence level III courses upon successful completion of 72 units of credit.

   10.  Progression to stages 2, 3, and 4 is subject to academic performance. Students will be required to attain a weighted average mark (WAM) of 70 in each semester. Where students do not maintain this minimum level of academic performance, they will be transferred to the Bachelor of Science program.

Students wishing to complete a major in Quantitative Risk, should note that this is a large multi-disciplinary major, and when taken in a dual degree program where there is little or no overlap of courses with the other degree program, may involve extra time and cost to complete, and may have visa implications for international students, ie. students taking Quantitative Risk in combination with a Bachelor of Commerce will be able to complete the two degree requirements in the minimum time as there is significant overlap between the two programs. However, students taking Quantitative Risk with a Bachelor of Arts will require an extra semester of study to complete the requirements for both degrees.

Honours

Students must complete a 48 UOC honours sequence at Stage 4. Progression to stage 4 is subject to academic performance, and requires completion of a total of 144UOC and all the requirements of the first three years of the program, including, level I, major, and general education requirements. Students are expected to have attained an overall WAM of 70 or higher to be eligible to continue to Honours. Admission is subject to appropriate research and supervision resources being available and quotas may be imposed for entry in any year, in which case admission will be determined on academic merit. Students should seek the guidance of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at an early stage of study to ensure that the study plan being followed is best suited to lead to the stage 4 Honours. Applications for admission into Honours should be made with the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Students who are ineligible to progress to Honours, will be required to transfer to the Bachelor of Science program (3970) and graduate with the Bachelor of Science award at pass level. Students should be aware that not all 3986 majors are available in program 3970 (meaning that graduation in 3970 may occur in a less specialized major).

Students completing Stage 4 Honours will be considered for the award of honours according to the following scale based on performance in the thesis and the 5 courses taken as part of the honours year. The thesis contributes 37.5% to the overall honours mark, and the 5 courses each contribute 12.5%.

Honours Class 1: mark or weighted average of 85 or greater;

Honours Class 2 Division 1: mark or weighted average from 75 to 84;

Honours Class 2 Division 2: mark or weighted average from 65 to 74;

Honours Class 3 or Pass: mark or weighted average below 65

Students enrolled in the Advanced Mathematics program who wish to take out the BSc award at pass level without proceeding to Honours, are required to transfer to the Science program (3970). Applications to transfer should be lodged no later than the census date for the semester in which the student expects to satisfy requirements. Students applying after that date may not be able to graduate in the next round of ceremonies. Student should be aware that not all 3986 majors are available in program 3970 (meaning that graduation in 3970 may occur in a less specialized major).

Academic Rules

See the Single and Dual Degree Program Rules above.

Fees

For information regarding fees for UNSW programs, please refer to the following website:  https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/fees/FeesMainPage.html

Choosing Electives

In addition to choosing science electives, and general education electives as per the academic rules above, students have free electives in the single degree program. These free electives can be taken from any Faculty at UNSW subject to the rule that no more than 72 units of credit of level I courses (or GEN##### courses) can be taken throughout the degree program. Therefore students may choose to undertake further science courses, or may explore subject areas from outside of science. For students interested in developing their research skills, the following courses are recommended:

High Performance Student Program and Accelerated Progression

Admission to the High Performance Student Program will be by invitation of the Program Authority. To be considered for the High Performance Student Program students must have demonstrated high capabilities (such as Olympiad participants or those with very high UAI or equivalent). There is provision for exceptionally talented students to take higher level courses in Stage 1, to be exempted from from some Program Rules and for early access to upper level courses and research projects. Contact the School of Mathematics and Statistics for details: http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/

Sample Programs

The Faculty of Science has created Undergraduate Program Guides to help students choose courses based on the requirements of their chosen major/s. The documents should be used as a guide only and in conjunction with the program rules outlined above.

To access the Program Guide for your major, visit www.science.unsw.edu.au/current-students/undergraduate-program-guides.

Area(s) of Specialisation