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Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours) and Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) (Honours)

Program Summary

Two goals for the honours year (that apply over both the project and coursework) are to allow students:

• to extend their study with individual research experience, and
• to have in-depth exposure to a collection of current research areas.

The Unit value of this program is #16.

Honours Coordinator

Peter Robinson
Office: 78-316
Phone: (07) 3365-3461
Fax: (07) 3365-4999
Email: pjr@itee.uq.edu.au

Overview

Information technology honours is available as a final year option for BInfTech (4yr) students and as a postgraduate year for BInfTech (3yr), BSc and BA students. The year involves both project and course work and is a full-time load (#8/semester). A class of honours is awarded (I, IIA, IIB, and III) based on a student's results over the year. All students must enrol in accordance with the University's enrolment rules. Students should ensure that their planned programs meet with the relevant degree program  honours rules. In general, a student is expected to undertake one full year project (#4), a course in research methods (#2) and five additional courses (#2 each). Please see the Honours Coordinator if you are unsure of either the rules that apply to you or the courses you need to take.

Previous honours students talk about their experiences here.

Program Goals

Two goals for the honours year (that apply over both the project and coursework) are to allow students:

• to extend their study with individual research experience, and
• to have in-depth exposure to a collection of current research areas.

After the honours year, students should be able to:

• carry out and report independent research, and
• discuss a collection of current research areas.

You can view the attributes our graduates can expect to acquire here.

Assumed Background

Students will have completed the first three years of their program and gained entry to the honours program.

Formal entry requirements and program components

The formal requirements for enrolling in honours differ slightly depending on which program you wish to pursue.  The requirements listed below apply to UQ students.  Those from other universities will be required to achieve an equivalent standard, assessed at the time of application for entry.

• BInfTech Honours
  • GPA of at least 4.5 for #12 of late year courses (taken from Part A or F of the BInfTech list) including a #4 project.
• BSc Honours (Computer Science)
  • GPA of at least 4.5 for #8 of late year courses from Part A of the BSc list relevant to the chosen field
• BInfTech/BA Honours
  • GPA of at least 4.5 for #16 of courses deemed relevant to Information Technology (see official rules).

Honours must be done within a calendar year and consists of #16 in accordance with the relevant program requirements.

Enrolling in Honours requires enrolling in the Computer Science Project comp6801/2, which, in turn, requires you to be enrolled in the program.

You apply (request permission to enrol) by filling in and submitting your application (see below) to the Adminstrative Officer (Academic), School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland.

• You need to apply before 1 February to start in semester 1.
• You need to apply before 1 July to start in semester 2.

If the deadline has passed, and if you believe you are eligible, please contact the honours coordinator as places may still be available.

The application form is Application postgraduate coursework (download PDF, or browse online forms at UQ myAdvisor). You do not need to fill in details of courses. If your undergraduate degree is from UQ, you do not need to supply any supporting documentation. If you are an international student and have completed your undergraduate studies at UQ, you can use the same form (disregard the instruction to submit a different form) but please indicate on a separate note that you are an international student continuing your studies at UQ.

Important note: While effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this information, in the event that it does not agree with the University Handbook, the Handbook prevails.

Resources

Facilities

Room 78-207 is exclusively available for honours students to use.  Honours students also have access to other undergraduate rooms.

The computer lab will be closed for about one week after each semester. This will enable technical staff to clean and re-install computers (as they tend to become infected with viruses etc). Please ensure that all your data is stored on elsewhere (e.g. on removable disks, or on the network home directory).

You have an account on the undergraduate network. The school has a student printing policy.

News, email and World Wide Web mechanisms are used to distribute information to you. The standard procedure for reporting system problems (software and hardware) is by emailing student-helpdesk@itee.uq.edu.au, but first check the student help webpage for solutions.

To obtain access to Honours Rooms, you will need a swipecard, which you will have to sign for and pick up from the office (78-217).

Honours representative

IT honours students may have one representative at School meetings which are held approximately every two months. The representative should be elected by and from the students, and the Admin Officer (see below) informed. The representative is responsible for putting the views of the students to School meetings and for reporting back the proceedings of meetings to the other students.

Honours Study

Many honours courses are different from other courses in that they contain smaller numbers of students and there is a higher expectation for individual work. We encourage all students to take an active role within the class both in asking questions and in participating in discussions.

You should also ensure that you share your time equally across  the courses you are enrolled in. Try to avoid  the situation where you spend too much time on one course (perhaps because a deadline is due) and not enough time on another (with an equally important deadline which is just a little later). This is especially true of the project where a deadline is at the end of the semester; it is easy to put off working on a project because an assignment for another course is due; if you do not work continuously on the project you will have difficulty producing a good thesis at its end.

If you are unsure of whether you are making adequate progress or unsure of course requirements, then you should consult either the course coordinator of the course or your project supervisor. Illness that affects your studies should be notified via the University's special considerations procedures.

Problems and Questions

Administrative queries to the Administrative Officer, Academic & Student Support, Debbie Bertram (3365 3840 or email dbertram@itee.uq.edu.au); academic queries, to the Honours coordinator.

Consultation

The honours coordinator is available for consultation on issues relating to the organisation of honours, both the project and specific courses. Specific details of your project should be handled by you and your supervisor and likewise specific details of a course by you and  the course coordinator. Issues that affect your complete honours year rather than specific courses should be referred to the Honours Coordinator.

Newsgroup

The Honours Newsgroup is available on both the University and School news servers (news.uq.edu.au and news.itee.uq.edu.au).

Students are encouraged to post questions (and answers!) to the newsgroup.

Class of Honours

The calculation of the class of honours reflects university assessment policy and balances the importance of the honours project and the honours courses on the class of honours awarded.

From 2005 UQ Policy 3.20.14 applies, which outlines the guidelines for determining the class of honours.