What kind of research is involved in an Honours degree? Must it be original research where you gather information yourself or are you able to rely on secondary sources? Do you plan and perform this research alone (the supervisor doesn't count) or are you given ideas to get you started? Are you able to perform any kind of research related to your field of expertise? Would this research be similar to, say, the research undertaken to attain a Masters degree by research (being different only in length)?
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Honours research (1 Viewer)
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Survivor39
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What you do in the Honours years depends on what degree you are doing. Honours can be integrated (e.g. Engineering) or can be "add-on" (B Arts, B Sc). Most people in non-Science degree usually don't do Honours. e.g. Commerce people. In this type of Honours, you do gathering informnation from primary or secondary resources to address a focus question, in the form of a thesis.
Relatively more science students do Honours because it is acutally first hand research. i.e. you actually go into a lab and do experiments. I am currently working on the role of bacteria in children with inflammatory bowel disease, which requires me to physically culture + detect bacteria from biopsy specimens and see what they are. Then, from your results you write a thesis.
Your supervisor is there to help you along the way and give you guidance and look through your thesis and other assignments.
When you graduate, you can stick to the same field or slightly different field. For example, if I am interested in working with bacteria then I can either stay in my lab and do a Master or a PhD. Alternatively I can switch field and work on Cancer biology or environmental microbiology. Of ocurse I cannot switch completely and go into geology because I don't have any expertise in that field.
I hope this helps.
Relatively more science students do Honours because it is acutally first hand research. i.e. you actually go into a lab and do experiments. I am currently working on the role of bacteria in children with inflammatory bowel disease, which requires me to physically culture + detect bacteria from biopsy specimens and see what they are. Then, from your results you write a thesis.
Your supervisor is there to help you along the way and give you guidance and look through your thesis and other assignments.
When you graduate, you can stick to the same field or slightly different field. For example, if I am interested in working with bacteria then I can either stay in my lab and do a Master or a PhD. Alternatively I can switch field and work on Cancer biology or environmental microbiology. Of ocurse I cannot switch completely and go into geology because I don't have any expertise in that field.
I hope this helps.
- Someone I met is doing a 20,000 word thesis on some type of economic politics topic for her USYD Economic and Social Sciences Honours year, borrowing out the max number of books possible from Fisher at any one time. Yes, it's a lot of trawling through secondary resources.
- Another person I met is doing Honours in Agricultural Science, also at USYD. Like Survivor39 said, it's pretty much original lab-based research. She's researching the genome of platypus venom, and such related agricultural genomics. It's just like work, apparently--just rock up to the lab and keep investigating from 9-5pm, or whatever you want, no classes at all. She was given the option of either writing an original article that could be professionally published, or carrying out a review and getting together various abstracts and articles from places and binding that as her thesis, so you get some flexibility there.
- And with degrees that have integrated honours, like Law or Engineering, usually they are WAM-based, so you don't actually have to do anything else apart from do well and graduate.
Survivor39, that sounds like interesting work! Haha, you might even get published!
Do you have any plans for postgrad study or stay in the same field?
- Another person I met is doing Honours in Agricultural Science, also at USYD. Like Survivor39 said, it's pretty much original lab-based research. She's researching the genome of platypus venom, and such related agricultural genomics. It's just like work, apparently--just rock up to the lab and keep investigating from 9-5pm, or whatever you want, no classes at all. She was given the option of either writing an original article that could be professionally published, or carrying out a review and getting together various abstracts and articles from places and binding that as her thesis, so you get some flexibility there.
- And with degrees that have integrated honours, like Law or Engineering, usually they are WAM-based, so you don't actually have to do anything else apart from do well and graduate.
Survivor39, that sounds like interesting work! Haha, you might even get published!
Do you have any plans for postgrad study or stay in the same field?
Survivor39
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No idea at the moment. I'm exhausted from doing that 80 pages thesis. I submitted in on friday after 2 days without sleep and 1 day without food... *sighs*
Well, at the moment I have already submitted a paper for publication. It is in a review process and it takes for ever for them to get back to us with a reponse - so who knows what will happen.
Well, at the moment I have already submitted a paper for publication. It is in a review process and it takes for ever for them to get back to us with a reponse - so who knows what will happen.