Background
The honours programme is split and scaffolded from undergraduate level. The course coordinator for the Organisational Psychology stream is a registered Industrial Psychologist, Ms Dineo Diale, and she manages the whole process of selection with the selected selection committee. The selection committee will consist of colleagues who taught Organisational Psychology on the undergraduate stream to ensure fairness.
A registered Industrial Psychologist who also fulfils a course coordination process works hand in hand with HOD and selection committee.
The course provides a full-time, in-depth year of study for students interested in careers in organisational psychology, human resource management or research psychology. Entrance into the Honours programme will normally be restricted to students who have a good result in Organisational Psychology 3 in their final year of undergraduate study. All five papers in the Organisational Psychology Honours programme are compulsory; these include Research Methods, Assessment, Career and Personnel Psychology, Occupational Health and Well-being, and Organisational Development. These papers may vary in any given year due to staff availability. Students also do a research project guided by staff interests. The honours programme does not have 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 a professional training Master’s degrees in Organisational Psychology (not currently offered at Rhodes University).
Requirements/Criteria
o Ordinarily 70% for coursework and 70% for research forms part of the requirements, however, if a student obtains outstanding marks for instance 95% on coursework for instance and 60% on research a recommendation will be made.
o It is noted that other universities have different structures so for clarity the following subfields from the Industrial and Organisational Psychology will be considered:
o Career Psychology, HR Psychology, Organisational behaviour, Research methods, Organisational Wellness or Occupational Health and wellness, diversity management, labour legislations, Ergonomics, Managerial Psychology, consumer behaviour/Psychology, Environmental Psychology and other Industrial and Organisational Psychology fields is required which later will be scaffolded onto the Masters by Coursework a programme in the pipeline as well as what is required in the world of work.
o A major in Industrial and Organisational Psychology in third year is required
Decision
There will be two decisions made during the selection of Organisational Psychology honours students as follows: i.) Accept pending final year marks or ii) Decline.
Acceptance will be in the form of the following:
o Students meeting the criteria will be offered a place. Pending maintaining their marks as per section 3 above. Closing date for application is October each year whereby the decision will reach students by November latest or later on depending on factors such COVID-19.
o With Organisational Psychology honours stream there will be no waitlisted students and rather students who meet the criteria and apply on time will be given an offer to study.
o A number of students' intake may vary depending on the staff capacity.
o Additional factor such as extra mural activities will be considered, to discriminate fairly against successful and unsuccessful candidates
o As a last resort selection interviews may take place.
Decline will be in the form of the following:
o Decline students not meeting requirements of at least 70% of coursework and 70% of research.
o Staff capacity whereby the class to staff ratio is fulfilled.
o The above-mentioned criteria will apply to both internal and external candidates.
Offers and placement on the programme
70% of internal students will be prioritized, while 30% will be reserved for external participants.
o Should there not be sufficient suitable internal applications to fill all of these ‘reserved’ places, they will be offered to suitable external applicants.
o Equally, should there be insufficient suitable external applications to fill all the remaining 30% of spaces in the program, additional spaces may be offered to suitable internal applicants.
Process of applying
Step 1: Student access the link to apply and attach relevant documentation. Applicants must complete a University Official Application Form and attach relevant information about their academic record. Application forms can be obtained from the Registrar's Office or online at https://www.ru.ac.za/registrar/forms/. Applications can be made electronically, or via completion of application forms, in which case applicants should send the completed application form to the Student Bureau (Academic Administration, Registrar's Division), along with the application fee and supporting documentation as follows:
Documentation supporting the application
Step 2: Registrar sends the application to the department.
Candidates may be subjected to selection interviews
The closing date for Organisational Psychology honours application is 31 October.
There is no particular funding for the Organisational Psychology Honours stream from the department, however candidates are encouraged to access www.zabursaries.co.za or enquire with pgfunding@ru.ac.za if there are available bursaries or cssradmin@ru.ac.za . Should students be awarded a CSSR bursary they will be expected to do research within the CSSR.
For further enquiries contact the Organisational Psychology Honours coordinator:
Ms Dineo Diale
Telephone: 046 603 7379
E-mail: c.diale@ru.ac.za
Last Modified: Thu, 06 Oct 2022 12:27:54 SAST