Departmental Honors
In addition to Interdisciplinary Honors, UW Honors partners with departments across campus to support them in creating unique Honors programming for their discipline. Within the Departmental Honors program, students delve more deeply into their majors through upper-level electives, research, or an extended thesis conducted in close working relationships with faculty mentors. We encourage programs to develop requirements and diverse opportunities that are reflective of their discipline’s mission, values, and curricular vision, as well as the broader goals and ethos of UW Honors–and that feel exciting to your student population!
The UW Honors Program provides guidance, support, and oversight for all Departmental Honors Programs across campus and works closely with the Office of the Registrar and DARS to ensure programs fulfill UW standards and requirements. In order to provide consistency across campus, there are general guidelines that all Departmental Honors programs adhere to. Those guidelines are:
- A minimum UW cumulative AND departmental GPA of 3.3 (departments may set that UW cumulative, and/or a departmental cumulative, higher if they wish)
- Approximately 9-12 designated Departmental Honors credits. These credits could be a combination of: stand alone Honors courses offered by the department; already existing courses or study abroad credits approved for ad hoc Honors; Honors research- or service-based credits; or approved graduate level courses.
- At least 9-12 credits used to complete Honors requirements (whether Interdisciplinary or Departmental Honors) must be numerically graded. There does not need to be a minimum grade in individual courses as long as the required cumulative GPA is achieved.
- An extended final project or presentation (or deliverable such as a portfolio, thesis, blog, publishable piece of work, etc.).
- Additionally, departments have a Departmental Honors website detailing requirements, values, and learning objectives. This web presence helps students understand the opportunities for the rich learning that is available to them in Departmental Honors. Further, it can help welcome your students who have not traditionally imagined themselves in these types of learning communities.
Some minor tips to keep language consistent and clear for students include:
- Refer to your program as “Departmental Honors”
- Degrees will be granted “With Honors in ‘name of your department’”
- Example Departmental Honors websites:
Students may engage in Interdisciplinary Honors, Departmental Honors, or both by earning a degree with College Honors. Regardless of what pathway students choose, your students are our students, and they are an active and important part of our Honors Program community–eligible for Honors student community groups and activities, Honors scholarships, Honors study abroad, and so much more.
To Create a NEW Departmental Honors Program:
- Contact Curriculum Specialist and Academic Operations Manager, Alycia Gilbert (amgilb@uw.edu), to schedule an initial interest meeting with the Honors team.
- Submit a Departmental Honors program creation request form well in advance of when you would like it to go into effect. Requests for new Departmental Honors Programs are open from the first day of Autumn Quarter through April 15th; due to limited committee availability, we do not take DH requests during the summer months.
- Requests are reviewed by the Honors Program staff, the Honors Council, and the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Curriculum Committee.
- If approved by all parties, the department will submit a 1503 form to FCAS.
- If approved, Honors will inform the department and send the new Departmental Honors program requirements to the DARS office.
- The new requirements will be put in the major’s DARS, in consultation with the Honors Program on issues of substance and with the department on issues of style. DARS does not accept requests for creation of a DH program from a department, only from the Honors Program.
- Departments should update departmental websites with the new Honors requirements, and share information about the program with students.
For Assistance with Existing Departmental Honors Programs:
Please see our Departmental Honors Portal if you wish to make a change to an existing Departmental Honors program or request an individual exception to your DH program requirements for a specific student. If your Departmental Honors program does not currently meet the above guidelines, or if you have questions in general about your program, we’re happy to meet with departments to discuss your program, share best practices and ideas, and help you make changes.
Further Information on Departmental Honors
Who does what regarding Departmental Honors?
What does the University Honors Program do?
As the governing body for curricular Honors at the UW, the University Honors Program both administers the Interdisciplinary Honors Program and oversees Departmental Honors across campus.
The University Honors Program, through the Faculty Council, must approve any changes or exceptions to official Departmental Honors requirements. This applies to long-term curriculum changes and one-time exceptions for individual students. The University Honors Program communicates any approved exceptions or changes to the DARS Office, who will then reflect those changes in the formal record. DARS does not accept requests for changes or exceptions from a department, only from the Honors Program.
The University Honors Program manages the online ad hoc Honors application portal, through which all Honors students must apply for ad hoc Honors course credit. University Honors Program staff do not review or approve Departmental Honors ad hoc course proposals.
What do departments do?
Departments determine what constitutes an Honors experience within their discipline/field, and how to reflect that in coursework and related requirements which will confer an Honors designation upon graduates.
Departments are responsible for submitting the appropriate forms, through our Departmental Honors Advisers Toolkit, to the University Honors Program to request any exceptions or changes to the formal Departmental Honors requirements on file with the University of Washington.
Departmental advisers review and approve ad hoc course proposals being used to fulfill Departmental Honors requirements.
Departmental advisers are responsible for putting in place DARS exceptions noting students as Departmental Honors students in their department, and ensuring students’ DARS reflect progress towards both departmental and Departmental Honors requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I be inviting students to join Departmental Honors?
This differs by department and Departmental Honors curriculum, but in general, most students complete Departmental Honors during their junior and/or senior years. This allows students to complete foundational coursework in the major before undertaking the additional rigor and depth of Departmental Honors.
Some Departmental Honors programs are competitive and therefore might have a quarterly or annual application process; others are open to all interested students. Either way, departments should be sure they are publicizing Departmental Honors in time for students to apply to the program, if applicable, and complete the necessary requirements before graduation.
Departmental Honors is a great thing to mention to students who are applying to/entering the major, and to feature in quarterly communications to students about opportunities.
Can I override Departmental Honors requirements as the Departmental Honors adviser? What about if I have permission from the Chair?
No, departmental advisers, administrators, and faculty cannot themselves override the Departmental Honors requirements for a particular student, although they may of course request approval of such an exception. Such requests must be reviewed by the University Honors Program and our Faculty Council to ensure all exceptions to Honors requirements (both Interdisciplinary or Departmental) are appropriate to the circumstances at hand. Requests for exceptions and curricular changes are available via our Departmental Honors Adviser Toolkit.
A lot of students complete ad hoc for a particular class in our department. Do they all need to do ad hoc forms? Do I have to review and approve all of them?
Departmental advisers are responsible for reviewing and approving all ad hoc forms submitted for Departmental Honors credit by those students in their department. However, ad hoc is one of two ways students can earn Honors credit. The other option is to create a Honors-designated section of a course via the Time Schedule and have all Departmental Honors students/students seeking Honors credit for that course to enroll in the Honors-designated section rather than the standard section.
It is important to note adding this designation implies differential coursework for all those enrolling in the section in order to merit the Honors designation. Faculty and departments are responsible for ensuring this differential coursework meets the goals and requirements of Departmental Honors in that discipline, and that students enrolled in the section complete the necessary work to earn the Honors designation.
If an Honors-designated section is available for a course, students should enroll in and complete that section rather than applying for ad hoc Honors credit.
The Honors designation may be added to a course via Time Schedule Construction. Please let us know if you have questions about this process or to discuss if might be beneficial to your department.
If a student does not intend to graduate with Departmental Honors after all, do I have to do anything?
Yes. If a student previously designated as Departmental Honors via DARS decides not to or is unable to complete Departmental Honors by their graduation date, you must remove the Departmental Honors DARS exception from their record. GARS will not be able to process their graduation application with incomplete requirements on record: the student’s degree will not be granted until all requirements on record have been completed and incomplete requirements removed.
The Departmental Honors Adviser Toolkit
Our Departmental Honors Adviser Toolkit provides tools to facilitate communication between your department and the University Honors Program. Using these tools, you may:
- request changes to your Departmental Honors requirements as whole, or request an exception to your standard requirements for an individual student;
- create a new Departmental Honors program for departments currently without one, or create an ad hoc Departmental Honors curriculum for an individual student;
- review and manage ad hoc Honors credit for individual courses used to satisfy Departmental Honors requirements;
- review the list of students in your department currently pursuing an Honors designation; and
- review advisers and administrators in your department who also have access to the Toolkit.
If you don’t already have access to the Toolkit, you may request access here.