Award of Honours and Senior Scholar Award

Whakawhiwhi Tāpiripiri | Additional Awards

Additional awards of excellence are available to some students under specific conditions at the time of their graduation. These include the award of Honours in Masters Programmes and some Undergraduate Programmes, and the award of Senior Scholar. Eligibility for these awards of excellence are generally determined by the calculation of Grade Point Average.

A Masters Degree ‘with Honours’

To be awarded a Masters Degree ‘with Honours’, a student must successfully complete a minimum of 180 credits which includes the completion of a thesis, dissertation or research project of at least 45 credits at level 9 with the following conditions:

a. The master’s degree shall be awarded with First Class Honours if the following criteria are satisfied, within the time limits as defined in programme regulations:

achieved a cumulative Grade Point Average of 7.0 or better in all necessary courses, with no less than a B+ in any one course, and with no less than an A- for the thesis, dissertation or research project and completion of the requirements within the time limits.

b. The master’s degree shall be awarded with Second Class Honours if the following criteria are satisfied, within the time limits as defined in programme regulations:

achieved a cumulative Grade Point Average of 5.0 or better in all necessary courses, with no less than a B- in any one course and with no less than a B in the thesis, dissertation or research project and completion of the requirements within the time limits.

c. The master’s degree with honours shall be awarded if all courses and the thesis, dissertation or research project achieve a passing grade, and all requirements are completed within the specified time limits.

d. A student may repeat a course that he/she has successfully completed in order to achieve a higher grade to be used in the calculation of honours.

e. A candidate who has failed any course shall not be eligible for honours.

An Undergraduate Degree ‘with Honours’

The award of ‘with Honours’ in an Undergraduate Degree is only available in a four year degree that includes a research component of at least 60 credits at Level 8.

In order to achieve ‘with Honours’, a student must achieve a grade point average of 6.5 or higher across all level 7 and 8 compulsory courses and complete all other programme requirements within the specified time limits.

Please note that this is an additional award of excellence and is not the same as achieving an Undergraduate ‘Honours’ degree which involves an additional year of study with 120 credits at Level 8 on the end of three years Level 7 Bachelors programme.

The Award of Senior Scholar

This award recognises exceptional graduands of Unitec undergraduate degree programmes and may be given to students enrolled at undergraduate level who are eligible to graduate in any given year.

Students receive an Award Certificate and Taonga presented at the Graduation Ceremony. Their Transcripts are also annotated with acknowledgement of the achievement.

To be eligible for consideration to receive a Senior Scholar Award a student must have:

achieved a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of 8.0 (there is no rounding) or better across all degree courses for which s/he has been assessed in the programme; and
achieved at least 2/3 of the total credits for the degree through enrolment in Unitec courses (i.e. have achieved no more than 1/3 of the credits by cross credits from another institution or by the assessment of prior learning).

Process

Prior to graduation, the Graduation Manager develops a list of eligible graduands. Te Korowai Kahurangi then checks the nominees and approves the list. Any marginal or unique cases may be considered by the Chair of the Academic Board.