General Requirements:
An electronic version (pdf file) of your thesis must be uploaded to the Moodle no later than 5:00pm on the due date.
Two bound copies of the thesis must be submitted to the Honours Coordinator, Tess Stafford (via her mailbox) at most one day after the due date of electronic version.
PDF file naming: Please name your file “Short title_Intitials.pdf”
PDF file special characters: Please make sure that any unusual characters and formulae are correctly translated in the pdf file. A trial run is advisable.
Paper Binding: Either hard binding or spiral binding are acceptable.
Warning: Binding may take several days and it is your responsibility to make sure that binding is done on time.
Failure to meet the submission deadline will result in a penalty of 3 percentage points per working day on the marks awarded for the thesis. In addition, very late submission normally means that a grade of Honours will not be announced until at least February of the following year which may, in turn, delay graduation. A student may apply for Special Consideration in cases of illness or misadventure and inform the Honours coordinator of this submission. The usual Business School procedures governing the application and granting of special considerations are followed for late submissions.
Style Guide
Every thesis should include the following in the order shown:
(a) Title page, showing title, author's name, degree (including specialisation), and date of submission
(b) Statement regarding contents
(c) Table of Contents, including chapter headings
(d) A List of Tables and Figures with the page number of each
(e) An Abstract of 200 to 300 words
(f) The main text, of approximately 15,000-20,000 words
(g) Appendices
(h) Bibliography
Pages are to be numbered consecutively from the title page through to the end of the bibliography. Footnotes are to be typed at the foot of the page which contains the text to which they refer or alternatively at the end of each chapter. Footnotes should be consecutively numbered within chapters.
The line spacing should be double or one and a half times normal spacing. 12’’ point fonts should be used for text. The document should be one-sided typescript on A4 with at least a 35 mm margin on the left-hand side of the paper (or more depending on binding requirements) and 25 mm on all other sides.
Electronic Publishing of Thesis
After submission your thesis will be made available electronically on the Business School Honours website.
Please discuss this with your supervisor and let the lecturer know at the time of the submission if you do not want the thesis to be published online.
School Library
One bound hard copy of the thesis will be retained at the School library and made available to the public upon request. The other hard copy will be returned to you after the examination period.
Award of Honours
In computing the final mark for the Honours program, a weighted average is taken of the five subject courses taken in the Honours year (1/8 each course) and the thesis (3/8).
After completion of all formal requirements, an Honours class is awarded as follows:
Class Mark
Class 1 (& University Medal*) 90-100
Class 1 85-89
Class 2, Division 1 75-84
Class 2, Division 2 65-74
Class 3 50-64
* An Honours thesis mark of 90 is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for award of the University Medal. Typically, students with an overall Honours year WAM above 90 and positive recommendations from their supervisor(s) are recommended by the School for the University Medal. The final decision is made by the University Medal Committee. According to university guidelines, all nominations shall remain confidential. Students must not be advised of their nomination. The University Medal Committee takes into account the whole academic record of the student in the program. As the award of a Medal indicates outstanding academic performance - as in the case of a degree awarded with Honours significantly above the minimum requirements for Honours Class 1 - it is expected that only in exceptional circumstances will there be more than one Medal awarded for a particular specialisation.
Peer Review Process and Referee Report
In Term 1, the lecturer will organise a roster with a partner for each student. Each student will have to send his/her draft to his/her ‘partner’ for feedback. This will be organised by topic. The partner will have to read the thesis, and write a referee report summarising the thesis, creatively critiquing it, checking typos, assessing the style, etc. Each partner will have to do this twice: 10 days before the first draft is due, and then 2 weeks before the final draft is due.
The quality of the feedback in this referee report will be taken into account at the final grade meeting at the end of the year in adjudicating on borderline grade cases.