Regulations for Honours in Philosophy

The Honours Moderator in Philosophy is currently Dr Miri Albahari. (Click on the name for contact details.)

Students wishing to enquire about honours in philosophy should approach the Philosophy Honours Moderator preferably before the start of the third academic year to ensure that their BA course prepares them for admission to honours. They should also consult the Faculty Honours Policies. Students are admitted to honours on the basis of having completed the pass degree at an appropriate standard with a major sequence in philosophy, subject to certain other requirements set out below. They take a one-academic-year honours course. The honours grade is based on assessment of work done in the honours year only.

N.B. In the light of the University Re-Structuring, all references to the Department of Philosophy and its officers in what follows are to be understood as including any successor to the Department, such as a Discipline Group.

1 Preliminaries

1.1 The person responsible for devising the overall honours course of any one student is the Honours Moderator. Courses are devised individually at the end of the third academic year, and students wishing to do philosophy honours must consult the Honours Moderator at that time.
1.2 Philosophy honours can be done in one full-time year after the completion of the pass degree. There is a range of options for completing honours other than by full-time study in philosophy: (a) part-time honours; (b) joint honours (philosophy and another discipline, with approximately 50% of each); (c) cognate studies: minor studies in another discipline are included in the philosophy honours course (or minor studies in philosophy with honours in another discipline).
1.3 Prerequisites: The normal prerequisite for entry to the honours course is the completion of a major sequence in philosophy. Arts Faculty policy specifies that a minimum 72 points of the units already taken be passed at or above 70%. A major sequence consists of the following: Twelve points (two semester units) of first year philosophy or an approved alternative, and thirty-six points of second year/third year philosophy.

2 The Honours Course

2.1 Structure
(a) Four seminars, two per semester, to be chosen from those made available by the Department in a given year. Each seminar will have a points value of 6. Each seminar will meet once-weekly. Information regarding availability is published separately. At the discretion of the Department, a supervised research project, other than the dissertation and assessed as described in 2.2 below, may be substituted for one seminar. In exceptional circumstances, one 12-point seminar may be substituted for two 6-point seminars.
(b) A dissertation (PHIL7479/PHIL7480). The length of the dissertation should be approximately 12,000 words and in no case shall exceed 15,000. Two copies of the dissertation are to be submitted by 5.00 p.m. on the last day of the teaching semester immediately preceding the candidate�s last examination.

2.2 Supervision
The topic for the dissertation, and an appropriate supervisor for the topic, should be agreed upon by the student and the Honours Moderator before the end of Week 1 in Semester 1. Thereafter student and supervisor should meet at least every two weeks to discuss the topic and the student�s work. The supervisor will give advice on relevant literature and the development of the topic, and will comment on the work submitted.

2.3 Final assessment
(a) Assessment in each 6-point seminar will normally consist of a single two-hour unseen examination taken at the end of the semester and a 3,000-word essay submitted by 5.00 p.m. on the last day of the same semester. The examination will consist of two answers from a choice of six questions: there is to be no substantial overlap in content among answers, essay and the dissertation. Examination and essay are weighted at 50% each.
(b) In some cases (e.g. Logic seminars) a combination of assignments may be substituted for the essay. (Such substitutions are at the discretion of the Department, not of the student.)
(c) If a supervised research project is undertaken, it will be assessed by a 3,000 word essay and, to ensure a general background in the area from which the project is taken, a 5,000 word prescribed and focused literature review.
(d) The final honours classification depends solely on the work done in the honours year.
(e) The structure and weighting of the assessment is shown below:

(g) The Conceptual Criteria for the Assessment of Dissertations and other honours work are shown below:

N.B. Within each category a piece of work may exhibit the distinctive qualities of the category to a greater or lesser degree.

H1

1. skill in handling complex issues and concepts in the development of an individual argument, and
2. demonstration of superior qualities of intellectual sophistication and philosophical insight, and
3. excellent writing skills.

H2A

1. demonstration of skills of analysis as well as synthesis, and
2. ability to marshal, and critically to examine, evidence to sustain a consistent argument, and
3. appreciation of philosophical issues, and ability to place the subject in the context of appropriate philosophical debate.

H2B

1. coherent narrative or descriptive account, adequately documented, and
2. competent synthesis of source materials, including primary source material where relevant, and
3. some serious attempt at analysis.

H3

1. Shows ability to present work generally above the minimum Pass standard, but with substantial limitations in research quality, argumentation, written presentation or documentation which clearly exclude it from the higher honours categories.

3 Philosophy honours other than by full-time study in philosophy

3.1 Part-time honours
A part-time honours programme can be devised in consultation with the Honours Moderator. See the FAHSS honours policy as detailed on the web at:
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/for/students/policies/honours

3.2 Joint honours
If students have a double major, it is possible to do joint honours if the faculty and discpline criteria are met. It involves doing approximately half the honours work in philosophy and half in another discipline.

3.3 Cognate studies
In the honours degree with cognate studies, seminars in philosophy are replaced by work of equivalent weight, up to a maximum of 12 points, in another discipline. The work in the other discipline must be assessed at honours standard and counted as part of the final honours mark in philosophy.

4 Mid-Year Entry

Under special circumstances students may be permitted to enter honours at the end of the first semester. Taking account of timing of their entry to the honours course, the regulations will be interpreted in such a way as to treat them equitably with other honours students.

5 Assessment Procedures

5.1 The deadline for all work in a seminar submitted for assessment is 5.00 p.m. on the final day of the semester in which that seminar is taught.
5.2 The length of the dissertation should be approximately 12,000 words and in no case shall exceed 15,000. Students will be required to submit two copies of their dissertations by 5.00 p.m. on the last day of the semester immediately preceding their last examination.
5.3 For the dissertation there will be two examiners, the Head of Department's nominee from those with competence in the field, and another member of staff (other than the supervisor) nominated by the student. The supervisor will not examine the dissertation. Before deciding upon their marks, the supervisor may provide the examiners with a brief report concerning the student’s demonstrated levels of independence and initiative. The supervisor may also comment on strengths and weaknesses, and the overall quality of the dissertation—without however suggesting a specific mark. Dissertation examiners must provide a written report to the discipline group before the meeting. The final mark for the dissertation is to be ratified by the discipline group.
5.4 Two examiners for each component of the honours assessment will be appointed by the Head of Department on the advice of a Departmental Meeting prior to the examination period. The examiners are to mark initially completely independently of each other; they should then discuss any disagreements in marks between them, and the reasons therefor; they are free, but not required, to revise their initial marks in the light of this discussion. If their final marks are no more than eight percentage points apart, the Meeting specified in 5.6 will split the difference. Their final marks, and the reasons for any remaining substantial disagreement between them, are to be reported to the Meeting specified in 5.6 which will determine a mark for the component.
5.5 The Head of Department may appoint one or more overall examiners who will not in this capacity be responsible for any individual grading of a paper but will look through all the candidates� examination material to gain an overall impression of a candidate's ability, and who will report on this to the Meeting specified in 5.6.
5.6 (a) The Head of Department shall call a Departmental Meeting for the purpose of deciding on a final assessment of the honours students.
(b) Each examiner will recommend a percentage mark for the relevant components of the assessment, bearing in mind the scale: Fail / Third Class Honours (III) / Second Class Honours lower division (IIB) / Second Class Honours upper division (IIA) / First Class Honours (H1). An averaging procedure will be employed to determine each candidate�s provisional overall percentage and grade, after the concession of (c) below has been implemented.
(c) Unless a student is enrolled in joint honours, the student�s single worst essay or examination paper will be ignored in his or her assessment. This concession is intended only to prevent a student�s being unduly penalized by an uncharacteristic performance. If it is clear that a student has taken advantage of it by not putting any work into one of his or her essays or examinations, the examiners may revoke this concession. If a student is enrolled in joint honours, then the student's worst essay or examination may be ignored but only in discussion with the Head of the other department in which the student is jointly enrolled.
(d) Any factors which may be involved to alter the provisional grade may then be discussed, such as the report of any examiners appointed under section 5.5 above or the performance of the candidates in seminars and written work during the honours course, with the proviso that such prior performance may be invoked only to raise the provisional grade and in no case lower it.

6 Conversion Table: Honours grades and their pass and percentage equivalents