Honours in Classics and Ancient History

A Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours requires the equivalent of four years of full time study--in other words, one year more than the standard B.A. You may apply to enter one of the the Honours programmes offered by Classics & Ancient History at the completion of your third academic year. Honours programmes are available to both full-time and part-time students. Arts Faculty general policy on admission into Honours, and on the structure and assessment of Honours programmes, is available from the Faculty Honours webpage.

Honours programmes in Classics & Ancient History at UWA fall into two broad areas:

It should also be noted that it is possible to combine Honours in Ancient History with Honours in the Classical languages, and that Honours in Classics and Ancient History can be combined with Honours in other Disciplines in the Faculty. Depending on the extent of each Discipline's contribution, the result may be classified as a degree with 'combined Honours' in both Disciplines, or else with Honours in one Discipline and 'cognate studies' in the other. Please see the Honours coordinator for details.

There follow some key points, plus the assessment guidelines, for the Honours courses in Classics and Ancient History.

Prerequisites

Classics or Latin or Greek:
Latin 301, Latin 302, Greek 301 and Greek 302 are prerequisites for entry into Classics Honours. For Latin Honours only, Latin 301 and Latin 302 are required and at least one year of Greek is strongly recommended. For Greek Honours, Greek 301 and Greek 302 are required, and at least one year of Latin is strongly recommended.

Ancient History:
At least two semester-length third-year Ancient History units are required as a prerequisite for Honours in Ancient History. Latin and Greek 151/2 are no longer prerequisites for entry into Ancient History Honours. Nevertheless students are strongly encouraged to fit at least one of these units into their undergraduate programme. Language skills in Latin and Greek are indispensable for most postgraduate work in Ancient History.

Honours Coordinator
The Honours Coordinator is Dr Neil O'Sullivan, who is available to assist you in deciding whether to apply for acceptance as an Honours student. You should arrange to talk with him during the second semester of your third year. Once you have been accepted, the Honours Coordinator will discuss with you such matters as possible Honours Seminars and an overall personal Supervisor for your Honours programme. Once your enrolment has been accepted, you will receive a formal letter detailing the Honours courses you will be taking and the assessment for each.

Structure
For all students, whether enrolled in Ancient History or the Classical Languages, the same basic pattern applies. The course is divided into five basic units:

The Honours seminars are semester length courses which are offered by individual staff members. They are decided on each year after consultation between students and the Honours coordinator, who will attempt to combine them in groups. Seminars are generally distinct single semester courses but may be sequential. Once they are arranged, there will be a descriptive outline prepared for each course.

The Ancient History seminars will be of two kinds.

a) In each semester there will be a Sources seminar consisting of weekly classes with special attention paid to the analysis, interpretation and overall explanation of sources. These seminars will be assessed by a long essay and/or examination. As a general rule the dissertation topic will emerge from the subject area of the Honours seminars. Students will identify issues that interest them, and they will be refined into dissertation topics by their supervisor (who will normally be responsible for the relevant seminar).
b) There will also be a seminar concentrating on a particular form or aspect of evidence used in the study of Ancient History; examples are Numismatics, History and Archaeology, Theatre as History. Each student is expected to make a presentation (up to fifteen minutes in duration). At the end of each semester there is a two hour examination, in which students are given the option of writing on the subjects that they have individually researched or on the other subjects of the seminar.

The Classics seminars each consist of the study of a major work by a classical author. In each semester there will be two seminars, each consisting of weekly reading and discussion classes, which will be examined by essays and/or exams at the end of each semester.

In addition to these formal components, the attendance of Honours students at our staff/student research seminars will also be beneficial and is expected.

Supervision
As is noted, above, you will have a supervisor appointed at the start of your course. He or she will have primary responsibility for your dissertation. You should meet regularly, at least once a fortnight, and you should feel at liberty to raise any concern you have about your course. If there are problems you cannot resolve, you should see the Honours Coordinator, who will have fixed the content of your course before enrolment and should be aware of any difficulties that you are facing. Outside the dissertation the staff members who take the seminars are the appropriate persons to consult if difficulties arise.

Assessment
Faculty has determined the mean scores for the award of Honours: 80% and above for H1, 70-80% for IIA, and 60-70% for IIB. That means in practice that marks are averaged out and weighted according to the points for each component (ie. the dissertation counts for 50% of the aggregate score, and the seminars 12.5% each). All scripts are double marked (and marked blind). The marks are then averaged out unless (which is rarely the case) there is a divergence of more than 5% or the marks given straddle a borderline (eg. 78% and 81%); then a third assessor is used to adjudicate. Dissertations are marked by an internal examiner (other than the supervisor) and a specially invited examiner from another university, who is asked to submit a brief report. Again, a third assessor would be called upon if there is serious divergence.

Criteria of Honours dissertation assessment

To achieve first class Honours level (80% and above) a dissertation must display the following qualities:

It must show familiarity with the relevant primary evidence, which may be literary, epigraphic, papyrological, numismatic or archaeological [1]. It must be alert to the implications of the evidence and display analytic skill. Mere exposition of the sources is not sufficient.

It must show awareness of all the important secondary literature (in English) [2], and deploy it critically. Simply quoting modern authority is not sufficient for first class Honours. Students must point out what is important and formative, and be prepared to criticise views with which they disagree.

It must be properly documented, i.e. equipped with footnotes giving references to sources and relevant literature, together with subsidiary argumentation (ideally there should be a dialogue between text and footnotes). The style of reference should be consistent, and the cumulative bibliography accurate.

Its exposition should be clear and grammatically accurate, the arguments cogent and presented in logical sequence.

Its conclusions need not be strikingly novel, but it must show independence of thought and critical control of detail.

These are minimum requirements for a score over 80%. For an excellent first (high 80s and above) students will need to show additional qualities, such as impressively original thought, exceptionally logical argumentation, unusually exhaustive command of bibliography or stylistic panache (extremely successful dissertations tend to show most, or all, of these qualities--'sed rara avis in terris').

Dissertations falling in the IIA range (70-79%):

The criteria are those of first class dissertations, but not all may be adequately addressed. For instance, some material evidence may be omitted or misinterpreted, some basic literature omitted. The argumentation may be less than coherent at times, the referencing inconsistent. But it is essential that the evidence is properly controlled, and used directly (not via second-hand quotations), and students must show awareness of its wider implications.

Dissertations falling in the IIB range (60-69%):

Dissertations so classified will tend to fall short in several of the categories. Such works may be bibliographically limited, imperfectly footnoted. The exposition may be clumsy, the conclusions derivative. However, the sources must be analysed independently and display direct acquaintance, and the presentation must be the student's own (ie not a series of quotations from the secondary literature).

Dissertations falling in the H3 range (50-59%)

Dissertations so classified will have major faults. They may be methodologically flawed, show no knowledge of critical evidence, follow modern authorities slavishly or quote sources at second hand. They must, however, present an adequate coverage of the subject and sustain a relevant, coherent exposition with some attempt at footnoting. Otherwise an Honours grade cannot be justified.

Notes:

1. It is understood that students will not necessarily have the skills for independent textual criticism or linguistic interpretation, and some of the evidence may be contained in publications which are not accessible in Australia and cannot be acquired during the period of candidature. None the less students should do everything they can to ensure that they have access to English translations of the principal sources and are aware of the interpretative difficulties they involve. The supervisor will have given direction in these matters.

Quick Links

Honours seminars

Staff/student research seminars

Dissertation guidelines