The Honors College partners with faculty in academic departments to provide opportunities for students to build intellectual and academic frameworks that prepare them for graduate school, careers, and lifelong learning. Thank you for supporting Honors College students. This page collects information about Departmental Honors Experiences faculty members may be asked to participate in. Please contact the Honors College at (940) 565-3305 if you have any questions about working with Honors students or would like to discuss expanding Honors experiences in your department.

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Honors Courses

The heart of the Honors College experience is the Honors course classroom, where UNT faculty engage students in an environment that challenges students and advances academic achievement. These courses are specially designed to facilitate deep engagement with course material. Classes are kept small (with an average of 25 students) to foster student involvement, classroom discussion, and opportunities for faculty to experiment with innovative pedagogical approaches.

Combined Courses

In combined courses, Honors and non-Honors students enroll in the same course under different section numbers. The sections meet together. Students enrolled in the Honors section have a supplemental syllabus that provides opportunities for more sophisticated engagement with the course material. The supplemental requirements may incorporate research, field work, collaboration, projects, or presentations. In combined courses that require separate lab meetings, one or more lab sections may be reserved for Honors students.

Sample Supplemental Syllabi for Combined Course

Honors Contracts

An Honors contract allows an Honors College student to earn Honors credit in a non-Honors 3000/4000-level course by undertaking independent academic work related to the course topic. The student works with the faculty member to formulate a proposal for an appropriate contract project. Contract projects must be additional assignments, not longer versions of what is already required for students. Contract projects can take many forms. Research papers are the most common, but students regularly complete music compositions, novellas, designs, laboratory research, and book reviews for Honors contracts.

Faculty Guide to Honors Contracts

Mentored Research

Honors College students can earn Honors credit for completing mentored research under the direction of a faculty member. These semester-length projects require independent work but may be designed and primarily executed by the faculty member. For example, a student working as a research assistant on a faculty member's project would be an appropriate mentored research project.

Honors Theses

A thesis project requires independent research. The student is responsible for all aspects of the project's planning and execution which they undertake under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Completion of a thesis is a multiple semester process that typically includes completion of the Honors College's Introduction to Research and Thesis Proposal courses and culminates with the student's public defense of their thesis project.

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