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Psychology Honours

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 have a good result in Psychology 3 in their final year of undergraduate study. Students write one compulsory paper in Research Methods and three elective papers (which include aspects of practical work); and do a research project guided by staff 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, Sport Psychology, and Community Psychology. 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 professional training Master’s degrees in Clinical and Counselling Psychology.

Honours Application and Selection process:

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. The application forms will then be scanned and entered onto the university’s system, where an Academic Department can review them and make decisions.

The Selection criteria for Psychology Honours are as follows:

  • Available Space in the Program:
  • The Department of Psychology offers an approximate maximum of 40 places available for the Psychology Honours program 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 half (50%) of the available spaces in the Honours programs are reserved for internal applicants (Rhodes University students). This translates into approximately 20 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 ordinarily gives selection preference to applications for Honours in Psychology over applications for Joint Honours.

 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 university credits, with six of these credits, in their major subjects carried from first-year to final year; one of the major subjects must be Psychology).
  • Achieving a minimum academic standard for said 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. In addition to the overall aggregate result, successful applicants are required to have achieved at least 65% for their Psychology 3 Research Methods module.
  • An applicant with a consistent record across all undergraduate credits and years is to be preferred over an applicant with a large number of poor marks.
  • External Applications: Applications received from students registered at other universities ordinarily need to have achieved a minimum 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. In addition to this overall aggregate result, successful applicants are required to have achieved at least 65% for a module in either Research Methodology in Psychology, or Research Methods in the Social Sciences, at either second- or third-year level.

 Additional Supporting Documentation and 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, letters of motivation / recommendation should be restricted to a maximum of one (1) page in length.
  • This additional documentation will be viewed by a selection committee consisting of the Head of Department and the Honours Coordinators, 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 Process of Selections is as follows:

All applications received will be waitlisted by the Honours Coordinators until the Departmental application deadline has passed. Once this deadline has passed, coordinators will review applications and make recommendations on decisions to the HoD.

The Honours Coordinators will:

  • Check whether an applicant has completed their Bachelor's degree, or is still in the process of completion.
  • Sort applicants still in the process of completing their degrees according to their mid-year academic results from their institution.
  • Provisional offers will be made to suitable applicants on the conditions that final academic results meet the selection criteria 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.

Selection 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 the applicant’s final academic results narrowly miss the minimum standards required (i.e. 65% to 69%);
  • The applicant will have completed their Bachelor’s degree before the start of the year for which they have applied, however the applicant’s 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 and/or other subjects in their Bachelor’s Degree that will be completed in Aegrotat / 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 Coordinators. 

  • 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 Aegrotat / Supplementary examinations in January / February of the year for which they have applied. 

Provisionally offered applications will be ranked according to academic results by the Honours Coordinators. 

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. These conditions are reflected in the decisions made on the Departmental Application System. 

  • An application is 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. 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.

Contact person for enquiries: 

Any questions regarding eligibility, decisions on an application, or the status of the selections 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

The Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR) programme 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. Successful applicants are expected to:

  • conduct their 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 an academic year, to a maximum of 27 weeks).

Interested candidates are invited to apply by sending the following to the CSSR on cssradmin@ru.ac.za by 30 September:

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

Successful candidates will be informed by letter; however, the bursary will only be released once the National Research Foundation, which funds the CSSR, has approved the candidates’ nomination as a recipient of the bursary. For more information on the research programme, visit www.ru.ac.za/criticalstudies/

 

Last Modified: Wed, 03 Aug 2022 12:31:46 SAST