Bachelor of Science - Honours and Double Honours

10. An honours program is available in the following disciplines: 

Students who plan to take an honours program must have the approval of the honours department(s) and the Dean of Science.

Note: At least 50% of all courses for any academic program must be taken at Saint Mary’s University and at least 50% of all courses taken in the honours and double honours subjects must be taken at Saint Mary’s University.

11. For the Bachelor of Science degree with honours, students must complete the requirements for a major [6 (a – h) and the following:

a. sixty (60) to seventy-two (72) credit hours in the honours subject, or in double honours [see 11(d)].  The exceptions are:

  • Astrophysics 
  • Computing Science

b. eighteen (18) credit hours in Science not in the honours subject [six (6) credit hours in double honours and in addition to the required Mathematics and Computing Science credit [six (6) credit hours], excluding non-Group B Geography courses and all Engineering courses.  With respect to this regulation, all courses taught in Psychology and Mathematics are considered Science courses;

c. sufficient electives to complete the one hundred and twenty (120) credit hours are required for a Bachelor of Science with honours.

d. For a double honours program, students must complete:

  • forty-eight (48) credit hours in the subject in which they are completing their thesis. (This includes the thesis and seminar course where relevant.)
  • students must complete forty-two (42) credit hours in their second honours subject,
  • six (6) credit hours in another science,
  • twelve (12) credit hours in Arts, and six (6) credit hours in the Humanities,
  • six (6) credit hours in Mathematics and/or Computing Science at the 1210-level or above, as stipulated in the regulations of the specific Department.

​for a minimum of one hundred and twenty (120) credit hours. Entry into this double honours program requires approval by the Chairs of the two Departments and the Dean of Science.

e. For an honours and major program, students must complete:

  • forty-eight (48) credit hours in their honours subject;
  • thirty-six (36) credit hours in their major subjects;
  • six (6) credit hours in another science;
  • twelve (12) credit hours in Arts, and six (6) credit hours in the Humanities, and;
  • six (6) credit hours in Mathematics and/or Computing Science at the 1210-level or above, as stipulated in the regulations of the specific Department. Both Calculus for Life Sciences I (MATH 1250) and Introduction to Computing Science and Programming (CSCI 1226) may be used towards fulfilling this requirement.

for a minimum of one hundred and twenty (120) credit hours. Entry into this double honours program requires approval by the Chairs of the two departments and the Dean of Science.

12. Students’ academic programs must be approved by the department(s) involved.

13. For a Bachelor of Science degree with honours, students must obtain a degree grade point average of at least 3.00 in those courses used to satisfy the requirements of section 11, above.  Students must achieve a grade of C or above in each of the courses used to satisfy the requirements of section 11a, above. In cases where a course has been taken more than once for upgrading purposes, only the highest grade instance of the course will be used to evaluate graduation standing.

14. In a program requiring an Honours Thesis, students complete the thesis course appropriate for their program.  In keeping with Academic Regulations 4b, a grading rubric for Honours Thesis courses will be provided. Thesis research will be conducted under the direction of the faculty supervisor, and the completed thesis will be evaluated by the supervisor and one (or more) other faculty member(s) associated with the program. At least one of the supervisor or evaluator(s) shall be a full-time faculty member at Saint Mary’s University. The student is also required to give a public presentation of their thesis work in a forum approved by the program. Upon approval by the thesis evaluators, an electronic version of the completed thesis shall be submitted to the university library.