Program

Advanced Science (Honours) - 3962

Program Summary

Faculty: Faculty of Science

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

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Typical Duration: 4 Years  

Typical UOC Per Semester: 24

Min UOC Per Semester: 6

Max UOC Per Semester: 24

Min UOC For Award: 192

UAC Code: 429350

Domestic Entry Requirements: See Domestic Entry Requirements

International Entry Requirements: See International Entry Requirements

Award(s):

Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours)

View program information for previous years

Program Description

Important: prior to 2016 this program was known as 3972 Bachelor of Science (Advanced). Students must follow the Handbook of the year they commenced their program, so continuing students should refer to the relevant Handbook here.



The Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) is the degree of choice for innovative thinkers with exceptional scientific knowledge and skills. It’s designed for talented students and offers the flexibility to tailor the degree in a way that works for them. The degree offers students access to advanced level courses and includes an Honours year. Students will study foundation courses, which may include subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics and maths, before choosing a major (or two) and really explore what inspires them most. In their fourth year, students undertake an Honours year which involves a supervised research project and in some cases, advanced coursework. Outstanding Honours students may continue their studies in a higher research degree.

Program Objectives and Graduate Attributes

Upon completion of Advanced Science (Honours) in the Faculty of Science at UNSW graduates will:
  • have acquired coherent knowledge of the underlying disciplines and concepts in one or more disciplines and be able to demonstrate this knowledge;
  • have developed an understanding of research-based learning and demonstrate analytical skills. Specifically graduates will be able to plan and execute a piece of research with some independence;
  • have developed critical thinking and problem solving skills with an ability to reflect critically on existing theoretical knowledge, ideas and practice within the relevant field to address a research topic;
  • be able to communicate their research ideas in a variety of formats to diverse audiences;
  • be able to demonstrate personal autonomy and accountability in the acquisition of application of knowledge or skills;
  • demonstrate the ability to apply the principles of teamwork and collaboration;
  • will have an awareness of international issues relevant to their chosen discipline.

Program Structure

Single Mode

When completing the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) as a single degree, students must complete a minimum of 192 units of credit (UoC). This 192 units of credit is comprised of the following:
 
TOTAL OF 192 UOC  156 UOC
* An approved Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) major; and
* SCIF1131;
* 48 units of credit Honours Year; and
* Science elective courses ('Science' courses are defined in Table 1 below.)
 24 UOC  * Free electives: these courses can be taken from any Faculty of the university.  
 12 UOC  * General Education courses: these courses cannot be Science courses.

Dual Degree Mode

When completing the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) as part of a dual degree, students must complete a minimum of 144 units of credit comprised of the following:
TOTAL OF 144 UOC 144 UOC
* An approved Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) major; and
* SCIF1131;
* 48 units of credit Honours Year; and
* Science elective courses ('Science' courses are defined in Table 1 below.)

Sample Program Guides

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 below.

To access the program guide for your major, visit Undergraduate Program Guides.

Single Degree Program Rules

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

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

   2.  Students must complete at least one approved Advanced Science (Honours) major, and this must be declared before enrolling in Level II courses. Information about how to declare a major can be found on the Science Student Centre website.

   3.   Approved majors in the Advanced Science (Honours) program are:

 
Earth Science
 
Ecology
 
 
 
 
Materials Science
 
 

* Students interested in completing a Bioinformatics, Biotechnology or Neuroscience major should read the important information at the end of this page under 'Bioinformatics, Biotechnology and Neuroscience Majors'.

   4.   Students may choose to complete an optional minor in one of the following areas using their Science and/or free electives:


Students cannot complete a minor with the same name as their nominated major, and Level II and III courses cannot be double-counted between majors and minors. More than one minor may be completed subject to the limit on double-counting. Students must declare their minor(s) before their final semester.

   5.   SCIF1131 Introductory Skills for Science (6 UOC) must be completed in first year.

Students taking the Vision Science major should take VISN1101 Seeing the World: Perspectives from Vision Science instead of SCIF1131.

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

   7.   In addition to the courses required for a student's chosen major, SCIF1131, and Honours, students must take 'science' courses so that the major plus SCIF1131, plus Honours year plus 'Science' courses total 156 units of credit. 'Science' courses are listed in Table 1 below.

   8.  Students must complete at least 24 units of credit of Level 1 'Science' courses.

   9.  Students must complete at least 30 units of credit of Level 3 'Science' courses.

   10.   When offered in a particular major, students must take higher versions of any Level 2 or 3 courses. Any variation to this must be approved by the Associate Dean (Academic Programs) or nominee.

   11.   Students must complete 12 units of credit of General Education at any stage in their 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. Courses with identifying codes GEN# can only be used to fulfil the General Education requirement of the program. GEN# courses cannot count towards the free elective component, or towards science core courses or science electives in the program.

Additionally, GENS courses cannot count as General Education for Science students. Any exceptions to these rules must be approved by the Associate Dean (Academic Programs) or nominee.

   12.   A maximum of 72 units of credit of Level 1 courses can be taken, including any GEN*#### course or mainstream Level 1 course taken to fulfil the 12 UOC General Education requirement.

   13.   Students may not enrol into Level 2 courses until at least 30 UOC of Level 1 courses have been successfully completed.

   14.   Students may not enrol into Level 3 courses until at least 72 units of credit of courses have been successfully completed.

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

Dual Degree Program Rules

When a student undertakes a Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) degree as part of a dual degree, the program rules are as follows:

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

   2.  Students must complete at least one approved Advanced Science (Honours) major, and this must be declared before enrolling in Level 2 courses (see above for a list of approved majors). Information about how to declare a major can be found on the Science Student Centre website.

Students in the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) / Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) are not permitted to declare a Bioinformatics major in the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) when taking the Bioinformatics Engineering stream for their Engineering component.

   3.   Students may choose to complete an optional minor using their Science electives (seen above for list of approved minors).

Students cannot complete a minor with the same name as their nominated major, and Level 2 and 3 courses cannot be double-counted between majors and minors. More than one minor may be completed subject to the limit on double-counting. Students must declare their minor(s) before their final semester

   4.  SCIF1131 Introductory Skills for Science (6 units of credit) must be completed in first year.

Students taking the Vision Science major should take VISN1101 Seeing the World: Perspectives from Vision Science instead of SCIF1131.

Students taking program 3762 Bachelor of Science (Advanced)/Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) must take ENGG100 Introduction to Engineering Design and Innovation instead of SCIF1131.

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

   6.  In addition to the courses required for a student's chosen major, SCIF1131, and honours, students must take 'science' courses so that the major plus SCIF1131, plus Honours year plus 'science' courses total 144 units of credit.

Students in the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours)/Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) dual degree may not count ‘COMP’ courses towards their Advanced Science (Honours) requirements unless they are specified as core courses in their major (i.e. for these students ‘COMP’ courses will not count as ‘Science’ courses).

   7.  Students must complete at least 24 units of credit of Level 1 'Science' courses.

   8.   Students must complete at least 30 units of credit of Level 3 ‘Science’ courses.

   9.  When offered in a particular major, students must take higher versions of any Level 2 or Level 3 courses. Any variation to this must be approved by the Associate Dean (Academic Programs) or nominee;

   10.  Students may not enrol into Level 2 courses until 30 UOC of Level 1 courses have been successfully completed.

   11.  Students may not enrol into Level 3 courses until at least 72 UOC of courses have been successfully completed.

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

Double Majors in Dual Degrees
Students who intend to complete a double major in the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) when taken as part of a dual degree, should be aware that it may be difficult to complete two majors within 144 units of credit. Therefore, students who intend to complete a double major should be aware that it may involve extra time and cost to complete, and may have visa implications for international students.

Honours

Where students successfully complete a total of 144 UoC and all the requirements of the first three years of the program, including Level 1/2/3, major, and General Education requirements, they apply for a supervisor and project through a nominated Science School for progress to the fourth -year honours component. A WAM of 70 in courses at Stage 1 to 3 in a student's major leading to Honours is required for progression to Stage 4. There are two exceptions to this requirement. For students planning to undertake Honours in Psychology, a WAM of 75 in PSYC courses in the student's major is required. For students planning Honours in any disciplines in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, a WAM of 70 in Level 3 courses taken for the major is also required. Students whose results do not meet these requirements may still be admitted to Honours subject to supervision and resources being available, and at the discretion of the Head of School. If a student is not permitted to progress to Stage 4 in Advanced Science (Honours) they will be required to transfer to, and graduate from, program 3970 Bachelor of Science. Students should be aware that not all Advanced Science (Honours) majors are available in program 3970, meaning that graduation in 3970 may occur in a less specialised major. Entry to Honours may still be possible by application to enter program 4500 Bachelor of Science (Honours).

Students should seek the guidance of the appropriate School at an early stage of study to ensure that the study stream being followed is best suited to lead to Honours. Applications for admission into Honours should be made with the relevant School.

An Honours year includes an independent research project under the guidance of an academic supervisor culminating in a written thesis, and may include higher-level coursework, compulsory attendance at OH&S training, writing literature reviews and research proposals, attending workshops and lectures, and attending and presenting seminars. The Honours year normally commences in Semester 1 and is undertaken full-time over 1 year. The independent research project will usually be worth 18-48 UOC undertaken across the entire year. For details of the admission requirements, structure and assessment of Honours for a particular discipline, please refer to the plan pages below.

Honours is available in the following areas:
Students completing Honours will be considered for the award of Honours according to the following scale (based on performance in Stage 4 and the calculation described in the particular discipline area):
  • 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 Science (Honours) program who wish to take out the Bachelor of Science award at pass level without proceeding to Honours, are required to transfer to the Science program (3970). Applications to transfer should be lodged with the Science Student Centre 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.

Academic Rules

See the Single Degree and Dual Degree Program Rules above.

Fees

For information regarding fees for UNSW programs, please refer to the following website:  UNSW Fee Website.

Table 1: Definition of 'Science' courses

'Science' courses are courses offered by the following Schools. The course prefixes that are associated with each School are in bold:
 
 Aviation  AVIA
 Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences  BEES, BIOS, CLIM, ENVS, GEOS, MSCI
 Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences  BABS, BIOC, BIOT, INOV, MICR
 Chemistry  CHEM
 Computer Science  COMP
 Data Science  DATA
 Food Science  FOOD
 Materials Science and Engineering  MATS
 Mathematics and Statistics  MATH
 Medical Sciences  ANAT, NEUR, PATH, PHAR, PHSL, SOMS
 Psychology  PSYC
 Physics  PHYS
 Optometry and Vision Science  OPTM, VISN
 Science Faculty  SCIF


Choosing Electives

In addition to choosing ‘Science’ and General Education courses as per the Program Rules above, students may take up to 24 UOC of 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 1 courses (including courses taken for General Education) can be taken throughout the program.
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 highly recommended:
  • SCIF2041 Research Internship A (6 UoC) – any major
  • SCIF3041 Research Internship B (6 UoC) – any major
  • BABS3301 Biochemistry Laboratory Project (6 UoC) – majors from the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences
  • CHEM3997 Special Project in Chemistry 3 (12 UoC) – for Chemistry major
  • CHEM3998 Special Project in Chemistry 2 (6 UoC) – for Chemistry major
  • PSYC3361 Psychology Research Internship (6 UoC) – for Psychology major
  • SOMS3001 - SOMS Research Internship (6 UoC) – majors from the School of Medical Sciences

Double Majors

When students choose to undertake a double major, elective courses are utilised to undertake courses for the second major. While some majors are in cognate areas and have some overlap which will enable the two majors to be completed in less than 192 UoC, other major combinations may require a student to do more than the minimum 192 UoC for the degree. This may result in additional cost and time to complete the degree requirements for the student and may have visa implications for international students

Talented Students' Program and Accelerated Progression

The Science Talented Students' Program (TSP) introduces high performing students - entering the Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) - to the Faculty of Science and helps them develop specific skills during their degree. The program offers these students exposure to research within the Faculty and provides a degree that is flexible and tailored to suit students’ needs and talents.

Invitation to participate in the TSP is made by the Dean of Science on the basis of superior secondary education performance (ATAR or equivalent), all incoming students are assessed for eligibility including non-high school leavers. High performing current UNSW Science students, in the BSc or BAdvSci(Hons), will be invited to join at the end of their first year. Contact the Science Student Centre for more details.

Bioinformatics, Biotechnology and Neuroscience Majors

The Bioinformatics, Biotechnology and Neuroscience majors are large majors and students may not be able to take these majors as part of a dual degree within the minimum UoC and taking one of these majors in a dual degree may involve extra time and costs to complete the degree requirements and may have visa implications for international students.

Contact the Science Student Centre for more details.

Advanced Science (Honours) / Engineering (Honours)

  • Students majoring in Advanced Physical Oceanography, Climate Dynamics, Mathematics, Advanced Physics, and Statistics in the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) will need to replace one or two of the second year Mathematics courses in their Engineering program with second year Mathematics courses required for the relevant Advanced Science (Honours) major. For further information regarding this, students should read this document Mathematics in BE / BAdvSci(Hons) Programs, or contact the Science Student Centre or School of Mathematics and Statistics.
  • Students undertaking a major in Biological Science, Earth Science, Ecology, Geochemistry, Human Geography, Physical Geography, and Marine and Coastal Science as part of the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours), will be exempted from completing MATH1041 Statistics for Life and Social Sciences and BEES2041 Data Analysis for Life and Earth Sciences when MATH1131 Mathematics 1A, MATH1231 Mathematics 1B, and a relevant second year statistics courses has been completed as part of the Bachelor of Engineering. For further information regarding this, please contact the Science Student Centre.
  • Students completing a major in Biological Science, Biotechnology, Genetics, Geochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Pathology need to carefully choose one of their first year Engineering electives to take a course for this major, otherwise, it will require more than 288 UoC to complete the requirements for the Engineering degree and Advanced Science (Honours) program. This could involve an extra semester of study, extra cost and may have visa implications for international students. Students should seek advice from the Science Student Centre as soon as they start planning their enrolment.
  • Students wishing to complete a Biotechnology, Neuroscience or Vision Science major will not be able to complete their major and the Engineering program within 288 UoC. Completing one of these majors as part of the dual program will involve an extra semester of study, extra cost and may have visa implications for international students.
  • Where students complete the requirements for the Bachelor of Engineering and the Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) in less than 288 UoC, the remaining elective courses taken to bring the total to 288 UoC must be taken from the Faculty of Engineering or the Faculty of Science.

Faculty of Science Rules

The Faculty of Science has some rules that relate to all students enrolled in programs offered by the Faculty in relation to recognition for prior learning, general education, course exclusions, study load, and cross-institutional study. All students should read the information contained on the Faculty General Rules and Requirements page in this Handbook.

Areas of Specialisation

The Areas of Specialisation listed below provide links to general subject area descriptions and is not a list of available majors in this degree. For a list of approved majors, refer to the program rules above.

Area(s) of Specialisation