Rhodes University Honours In Psychology

Rhodes University Honours In Psychology, The course provides a fulltime, 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 over time due to staff availability and student interest, including papers in the fields of, for example, Psychopathology, Psychological Assessment, Developmental Psychology, Neuropsychology, Sport Psychology and Community Psychology. This course 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 Masters degrees in Clinical and Counselling Psychology.

Organisational Psychology Honours

The course provides a fulltime, 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 Wellbeing, and Organisational Development. These papers will vary in any given year due to staff availability. Students also do a research project guided by staff interests. This course 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 Masters degree in Organisational Psychology (not currently offered at Rhodes University).

Honours Admission Application Process:

The Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR) programme offers two bursaries to black South African students (including people designated as Coloured, Indian and African by the Department of Labour) studying 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 need to write a covering letter and attach this to their Honours application form. The letter needs to specify why you are interested in the bursary and special skills you bring. 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/

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 by contacting the Student Bureau.  Applicants should send the completed application form to the Student Bureau (Registrar’s Division), along with the application fee. The application forms will then be scanned and forwarded to the Psychology Department.

The Department will make a provisional decision regarding acceptance once the applications are processed and students will be notified shortly afterwards. This will take the form of “Accepted”, “Waitlisted”, or “Not accepted” The department is only able to make a final decision once the final mark in Psychology 3 is available. For this reason, most applicants are only finally accepted in mid-December, although we do try to provisionally accept students so that they can be in a better position to plan for the next year. Students who are provisionally accepted and then achieve a mark of below 65% for psychology 3 will lose their places in the programme. In December, the list of accepted students will be finalised and some students will be placed on a (new) waiting list. These students will be offered places in the programme if, for any reason, students on the final accepted list do not accept the offer of a place in the programme. The Psychology Department will contact the accepted and waitlisted students in December and inform them of the Department’s decision. Unsuccessful candidates will be contacted by the Registrar’s division at a later date to be informed of the status of their application.

Applications close 30 September.

Further information and assistance contact:

Gary Steele, Honours Course Coordinator
Telephone: 046 603 8504
E-mail: [email protected]