Bibliographic record
Abstract
Executive Summary The Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) represents more than 250 Deans and Associate Deputy Deans from 44 institutions across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Our members lead schools that are home to more than 100 000 students and several thousand scholars in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. We advocate for our disciplines, produce research and policy submissions, engage with government, members and colleagues around the world. DASSH is a hub for members with networking and professional development events held throughout the year. DASSH established two new Special Interest Groups in 2024, one of which centred on the future of the Honours program. It brought together four senior leaders from member universities who have led this project. To gain a clearer understanding of the current and future directions for the Honours program, leaders of the Special Interest Group Professor Kath Gelber, Professor Alexandra Ludewig, Professor Kristin Natalier and Professor Thea Blackler, conducted a survey of Honours students and convenors across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Honours education is understood variously as a program, experience and qualification. Honours programs are student-focused and emphasise independent research and learning. The Honours program differs across disciplines and institutions. In the Australian and Aotearoa higher education setting, it typically involves proposing a question or concept which is explored in an extended research project alongside some seminar components variously referred to as coursework, units or credits. The surveys of Honours students and conveners across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand were distributed by DASSH to member universities in August 2024. They were sent directly to course convenors within humanities, arts and social sciences disciplines across Australia and Aotearoa who then shared the survey with students. In total, 134 Honours students and 57 Honours convenors completed the surveys which involved both qualitative and quantitative questions which aimed at understanding the characteristics and motivations of those undertaking Honours degrees as well as the structure of current Honours programs. The survey data was analysed through a mix of statistical and thematic analysis. The results of the survey indicated that the vast majority of students (72 per cent) were studying Honours full-time. Demographic data also showed that most Honours students were female (57 per cent) and between the ages of 20 and 24 (56 per cent). Top disciplines for students responding to the survey included Philosophy, English, Ancient History/Classics and History, and Languages/Linguistics/Translation Studies. Most students enrolled in their Honours degree for intellectual interest, curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. 7 Hobbiton Movie Set7 Hobbiton Movie Set When asked about the purpose of Honours, students’ responses could be grouped around a number of themes, including: Knowledge extension Training Chance to do independent research Pathway to higher level study Self-actualisation Enhance job prospects Relational aspects Honours convenors revealed that the structure and proportion of the Honours program was primarily either: 50 per cent coursework and 50 per cent thesis, or 30 per cent disciplinary coursework, 30 per cent methods, 40 per cent thesis. Forty-seven per cent of respondents revealed their institution does not offer an embedded Honours program. Fourteen per cent said their institution does offer an embedded Honours program. The remainder did not respond to the question. Forty-six per cent of convenors expressed interest in cross-institutional collaboration, although there was a significant degree of hesitancy expressed regarding the obstacles that would need to be overcome to make this work. The results of this study provide insight into the characteristics of the Honours degree which can provide a benchmark for future studies and conversations. The results were discussed extensively at the 2024 DASSH Conference in Adelaide and key insights from that conversation have been shared in this report.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.009 | 0.017 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.006 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.018 | 0.013 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.008 |
| Research integrity | 0.004 | 0.008 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.068 | 0.014 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".