Department of Economics, University of Otago

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Important Information about Honours Admission in 2012

Subject to final approval, the University of Otago is planning to change all its Honours degrees (including the BA(Hons), BCom(Hons) and BSc(Hons)) to a one-year postgraduate degree in 2013. The new Honours degree would be taken after completion of a three-year Bachelor’s degree (i.e., BA, BCom or BSc).

Consequently, there will be no new admissions into any of the current four-year Honours degrees at 200 level in 2012. However, if you are already in our four-year Honours degree programme, you will be permitted to continue. More details on transitional arrangements are available on the University’s website.

Entry requirements for the new postgraduate Honours degrees in Economics will include average grade requirements at 300 level (most likely B+ over the best 72 points counting towards the major subject requirements) but will also require specific prerequisite papers. If you think you may be interested in continuing on to an Honours degree (or a PGDip or MBus) in Economics in 2013 or later, you should complete the following papers by the end of your Bachelor’s degree:

100 level: BSNS104, ECON112, BSNS102 or STAT110, FINQ102 or MATH160

200 level: ECON 202, 210, 270, 271

300 level: ECON 371, 375, 376 (plus 18 further ECON 300-level points plus 18 further 300-level points)

Note that some of these papers are not essential for a major in Economics in a standard Bachelor’s degree. This means that a major in Economics is a necessary but not sufficient condition to progress to postgraduate study. You will need to have taken all of the above papers before you may enter any of the postgraduate programmes in Economics. So, to avoid unnecessary delay, careful planning of your undergraduate programme is needed and our Honours coordinator can help you in this regard.

Associated changes in the structure of the one-year Honours degree from 2013 onwards will also mean that no students will be permitted to begin either the PGDip or MBus in Economics on a part-time basis in 2012 or on a full-time basis in the second semester of 2012.