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Psychology Honours

The course provides a full-time, in-depth year of study for students interested to pursue careers in clinical, counselling, and research psychology. Entrance into the Honours programme will normally be restricted to students who achieve good academic results in Psychology 3 in their final year of undergraduate study. 

The Psychology Honours programme consists of one compulsory paper in Research Methods and three elective papers (which include aspects of practical work); as well as a research project guided by staff research interests.

The elective paper options on offer in any given year may vary due to staff availability and student interest, and may inter alia include papers in the fields of Psychopathology, Psychological Assessment, Developmental Psychology, Neuropsychology, Performance & Sport Psychology, and Community Psychology, together with other options focused on fields such as Therapeutic Interventions, Social Psychology, or Sexualities and Reproductive Justice.

The Psychology Honours programme offered at Rhodes University does not include the required supervised practicum that would lead to professional registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as a Registered Counsellor or Psychometrist. However, it does qualify students to apply for further training in these registration categories, or to be able to apply for professional training Master’s degrees in Clinical, Counselling, and Research Psychology.

Application process:

Applicants must complete an official University Application Form and upload this – along with relevant supporting information (e.g. an official academic record from their university; curriculum vitae; letters of recommendation; evidence of community engagement, or extracurricular volunteer activities; etc) – to the application portal (http://ross.ru.ac.za). External applicants will first have to register with the University as an applicant via this application portal.

Applications will then be captured onto the University’s Application Management System. Academic Departments will then be able to review them and make decisions.

The Selection criteria for Psychology Honours:
1) Available Space in the Program:
  • The Department of Psychology offers an approximate maximum of 40 places for the Psychology Honours programme each year. This number is subject to revision on an annual basis depending on factors such as staff research supervision capacity and teaching workloads.
  • Ordinarily, approximately two thirds (67%) of the available spaces in the Psychology Honours programme are reserved for internal applicants (i.e. Rhodes University students). This translates into approximately 27 places in the Psychology Honours Program each year for Rhodes University graduates. This proportion may fluctuate from year to year, depending on the number and quality of the applications received in any given year.
  • The Department of Psychology ordinarilygives selection preference to applications for Honours in Psychology over applications for Joint Honours.
 2) Academic Selection criteria:
  • Completion, or pending completion, of a suitable Bachelor's Degree with Psychology as a major subject (i.e. the applicant must have completed, or be in the process of completing, at least 10 year-long university courses, with six of these courses contributing towards the completion of three consecutive levels of study in two major subjects carried from first-year to final year). A completed major subject at the Bacheor’s Degree level typically consists of 120 completed credits in a given subject, with at least 60 of these credits being completed at the third-year level. To be eligible for consideration for Psychology Honours, one of the applicant’s major subjects must be Psychology.
  • Since curricula may vary between academic institutions, a major subject in Psychology is typically understood to contain modules (across first-year to third-year level) from several areas within the discipline of Psychology. These may include (but are not limited to):
  • Research Methods / Research Design;
  • Developmental Psychology / Lifespan Development;
  • Social Psychology / Critical Psychology;
  • Personality Psychology / Psychopathology / Mental Health & Distress;
  • Psychological Interventions / Psychotherapeutic Interventions;
  • Cognitive Psychology  / Cognition Learning & Intelligence
  • Psychological Assessment / Psychometrics;
  • Positive Psychology / Performance & Sport Psychology;
  • Community Psychology / Health Psychology;
  • Biological Psychology / Neuropsychology; or
  • Other cognate fields, such as Environmental Psychology or African Psychology, etc.
  • Applicants should achieve a minimum academic standard for their Psychology major.
    • Internal Applications: Rhodes students ordinarily need to achieve a final aggregate mark for Psychology 3 of at least 70% in order to be eligible for selection into Honours. This academic selection criterion may be adjusted in the face of the overall academic performance of any given cohort of applications. In other words, an overall aggregate of 70% does not necessarily guarantee selection into the program – it is the minimum requirement for eligibility. In addition to the overall academic result, successful applicants are required to have achieved at least 65% for their Research Methods modules in Psychology 3.
    • External Applications: Applications received from students registered at other universities ordinarily need to have achieved a minimum aggregate mark for their Psychology major of at least 70% in order to be eligible for selection into Honours. This academic selection criterion may be adjusted in the face of the overall academic performance of any given cohort of applications. In other words, an overall aggregate of 70% does not necessarily guarantee selection into the program – it is the minimum requirement for eligibility. In addition to this overall aggregate result, successful applicants are required to have achieved at least 65% for a module in Research Methodology, either as part of their Psychology curriculum, or as part of their Bachelor’s Degree curriculum in other Social Sciences disciplines, at either second- or third-year level.
  • An applicant with a consistent academic record across all undergraduate credits and levels is to be preferred over an applicant with variable / inconsistent results, or a large number of poor results.
 3) Additional Selection Criteria:
  • Candidates making applications for Psychology Honours may include with their applications any additional supporting documentation they feel may be relevant. Such documentation includes curriculum vitae; letters of recommendation; evidence of community engagement, or extracurricular volunteer activities; etc. Due to the volume of applications received, such additional documentation should not exceed three (3) pages in length.
  • This additional documentation will be viewed by a selection committee consisting of the Heads of Department and the Honours Coordinator(s) - alongside the applicant’s official academic transcripts - and will be used, where necessary, in making selection decisions / distinguishing between applicants with similar academic results.
The Selection Process:
  • All applications received will be waitlisted by the Honours Coordinator(s) until the Departmental application deadline has passed. Once this deadline has passed, the coordinator(s) will review applications and make recommendations on decisions to the HoDs.
  • The Honours Coordinator(s) will:
  • Check whether an applicant has completed their Bachelor's degree, or is still in the process of completing their Bachelor’s degree, with a suitable major in Psychology.
  • Sort applicants still in the process of completing their degrees according to their mid-year academic results from their institution.
  • Thereafter, Provisional Offers will be made to suitable applicants on the conditions that final academic results meet the selection criteria stated above AND that there is space available in the class. An application that is provisionally offered a place and which ends up meeting the academic selection criteria can still end up being declined if there are no further spaces available in the class.
  • Recommendations on Offers can only be made once final academic results for applicants are available. Applicants are responsible for sending their final academic results / transcripts to Academic Administration as soon as they become available.
Decisions on an application for Psychology Honours:

Decisions with respect to an application fall into one of four categories: 

  • An application is DECLINED on any, or all, of the following grounds:
      • The applicant’s final academic results are below an aggregate of 65% for Psychology 3;
      • The applicant’s provisional academic results strongly indicate that they are unlikely to achieve the minimum standards required;
      • The applicant has not / will not have completed their Bachelor’s degree before the start of the year for which they have applied;
      • There is insufficient space available in the program.
      •  
  • An application will remain WAITLISTED*on any, or all, of the following grounds:
  • The applicant has completed their Bachelor’s degree, however their final academic results narrowly miss the minimum standards required(i.e. 65% to 69%);
    • The applicant will have completed their Bachelor’s degreebefore the start of the year for which they have applied, however their provisional academic results indicate that they may not achieve the minimum standards required (i.e. 65% to 69% for mid-year results);
    • The applicant has outstanding credits in their Psychology major or other subjects in their Bachelor’s Degree that will be completed in Supplementary examinations in January / February of the year for which they have applied. 

*Waitlisted applications will be ranked according to academic results by the Honours Coordinator(s). 

  • An application is ordinarily made a PROVISIONAL OFFER*on any, or all, of the following grounds:
      • The applicant will have completed their Bachelor’s degree before the start of the year for which they have applied and their provisional academic results meet the minimum standards required (i.e. at least 70%); or indicate that they are likely to achieve the minimum standards required;
      • The applicant’s final academic results narrowly miss the requirements for their Psychology major results, but their three-year undergraduate career average for Psychology suggests consistent academic performance that meets the academic selection criteria;
      • The applicant meets the academic selection criteria for their Psychology major, but has outstanding credits in other subjects in their Bachelor’s Degree that will be completed in Supplementary examinations in January / February of the year for which they have applied. 

*Provisional Offers will be ranked according to academic results by the Honours Coordinator(s). ALL provisional offers carry the explicit conditions that:

 1) the applicant meets the minimum academic criteria applicable; AND 

2) that there is space available in the class for the year of application. 

  • An application is ordinarily made an OFFER on any, or all, of the following grounds:
      • The applicant’s FINAL academic results meet the minimum standards required (i.e. at least 70% aggregate for their Psychology major);
      • The applicant has completed their Bachelor’s degree before the start of the year for which they have applied. 
Closing Date and Late Applications:

The Department of Psychology deadline for Honours Applications is 30 September each year. Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to have submitted their applications to the University well in advance of this date.

The Registrar’s Division routinely accepts late applications for postgraduate studies, often until well into January / February of the academic year. Many such late applications may well meet the academic selection criteria. Such applications will be WAITLISTED pending the availability of space in the program.

Class lists will usually be finalised by 15 January each year (at the latest), at which point all remaining applications that have either been Waitlisted, or made a Provisional Offer pending the availability of space in the programme, will typically be declined on the basis of the programme being full.

Contact person for enquiries: 

Any questions regarding eligibility, decisions on an application, or the status of the selection process can be directed to:

Mr Werner Bohmke

Honours Course Co-ordinator
Telephone: 046 603 8508
E-mail: w.r.bohmke@ru.ac.za

 

Funding Opportunities:

Departmental / University Funding:

There are no specific Departmental funding opportunities for the Psychology or Organisational Psychology Honours programmes.

External applicants are encouraged to access www.zabursaries.co.za to explore possible funding options for postgraduate study within South Africa.

Internal applicants are encouraged to contact the Rhodes University Postgraduate Funding Office (pgfunding@ru.ac.za) to enquire about funding opportunities available to Rhodes University graduates.

If you are considering postgraduate study and will require funding for this, please be aware of the deadlines for funding applications and make sure to seek to secure funding in good time – preferably in the second half of the year prior to the start of your postgraduate degree.

  • Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR)

The Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR) Unit at Rhodes University (affiliated with the Department of Psychology) offers four bursaries to black South African students (including people designated as Coloured, Indian and African by the Department of Labour) studying Psychology or Organisational Psychology Honours. The amount of the bursary is R40 000 per annum.

Interested candidates are invited to apply by sending the following to the CSSR on cssradmin@ru.ac.za by 30 September in the year prior to the start of their Honours Degree studies:

  • A covering letter specifying why you are interested in the bursary and what special skills you bring;
  • A copy of your CV;
  • A copy of your academic record;
  • Proof that you have applied for Psychology or Organisational Psychology Honours.

Successful candidates will be informed by letter; however, the bursary will only be released once the National Research Foundation (NRF), which funds the CSSR, has approved the candidates’ nomination as a recipient of the bursary. This funding is also contingent upon the application to the Honours programme being successful.

For more information on the research programme of the CSSR unit, visit www.ru.ac.za/criticalstudies/

Successful applicants will be expected to:

  • conduct their Honours research project on a topic specified by the head of the CSSR;
  • ensure that they abide by the agreed upon timeline for the completion of various elements of their research;
  • provide research assistance work to the CSSR over and above the research project they are conducting (6 hours a week during the academic year, for a maximum of 27 weeks).

 

Last Modified: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 12:08:05 SAST