University Honors Program
Associate Director: Ashley M. Jones, M.F.A.
Program Manager: Donna Andrews, M.P.A.
The University Honors Program draws on the wide range of resources available at a comprehensive research university and concentrates those resources within a small, personal, liberal arts setting. Designed for students who want to satisfy their intellectual curiosity both inside and outside the classroom, the program accepts about 50 students a year representing a wide variety of disciplines, backgrounds, and interests. The program offers an innovative, interdisciplinary arts and sciences curriculum taught by faculty who are known for their excellence in teaching and scholarship. Without delaying progress toward a degree, the University Honors Program provides students an opportunity to participate in a community of committed scholars, to form close relationships with faculty, to explore new ideas, and to share their ideas and interests in the friendly confines of the Spencer Honors House.
Benefits
Students in the University Honors Program (UHP) receive an intensive and innovative education that consists of a 33 credit hour interdisciplinary arts and sciences curriculum that replaces a student’s regular core curriculum. Students take two, nine-credit hour interdisciplinary courses and five UHP honors seminars on topics not offered in the regular academic departments. Students get to know their instructors and other students very well, providing a sense of community and identity within the larger university context. UHP students have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by involvement with several student-lead UHP committees and have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of cultural, social, and scholarly events and are funded to present their research at state, regional, and national honors conferences.
Spencer Honors House
The center of identity and community for the University Honors Program is the Spencer Honors House, located on campus in the spacious and attractive environment of the Old Church at 1190 10th Avenue South. All instructional and social activities of the University Honors Program take place there. The Spencer Honors House is also available for day-to-day use by UHP students for recreation, studying, meeting, and relaxing. The facilities include a kitchen, lounge areas, library, computer clusters, and pool and Ping-Pong tables.
Application
For more information on applying to the Honors College or its programs, visit http://www.uab.edu/honorscollege/.
Honors Coursework
Students in the University Honors Program take 33 semester hours of honors coursework and three semester hours in mathematics. In addition, they participate in a variety of special events, most of which are centered in the Spencer Honors House. The University Honors Program provides a stimulating range and depth of scholarly pursuits within an interdisciplinary arts and sciences context. Students have frequent individual contact with the teaching faculty and have unusual opportunities for independent projects and research.
Students have two options for completing their 33 semester hours in honors:
- Two 9-semester-hour fall-semester interdisciplinary honors courses plus five 3-semester-hour honors seminars (only two of which can be related to the student’s major or minor); or
- Two 9-semester-hour fall-semester interdisciplinary honors courses, a minimum of three 3-semester-hour honors seminars (not related to the student’s major or minor), and up to six semester hours of departmental honors coursework within the student’s major (with the total number of semester hours adding up to 33).
The interdisciplinary honors course is offered during the fall semester and is open only to University Honors students. These courses are team-taught by faculty members (usually six) from different schools in the university and by guest lecturers from the medical center, the business, and other areas. Each interdisciplinary course is organized thematically and designed to cover a broad range of material so the student is introduced to all areas covered by the Core Curriculum and to a wide variety of other areas as well. Topics of past interdisciplinary courses have included “Minds and Realities," "In Search of Human nature," "It's About Time," and "The Anatomy of Desire." As part of the course, each student works on an independent project related to the central theme.
The University Honors program offers about 18-20 different honors seminars each year. . These seminars are offered during the fall semester, spring semester, and summer term and are limited to 16 students. Honors seminars are available in a variety of different fields and focus on issues that are of major interest within the field and also have implications and applications beyond it. Examples of honors seminars which have been taught are "Ethnographic Filmmaking," " China's Next phase," "Cognitive Brain Imaging," Philosophy, Psychology, and the Economics of Happiness," Existentialism and Modern Literature."
Additional Information about the Curriculum Core Requirement in Mathematics
In addition to the honors coursework, University Honors Program students must fulfill the Quantitative Literacy requirement of of the Blazer Core Curriculum.
Continuation in the Program
A student who leaves the University Honors Program for any reason will receive full credit toward graduation for all coursework completed in the program. In addition to the UAB Honors College's requirement to maintain a 3.0 cumulative UAB GPA, UHP students are expected to maintain a 3.0 average in University Honors Program coursework. To graduate with High Distinguished Honors in University Honors, students must complete 30 semester hours of designated honors coursework with a 3.5 GPA overall or better; Students who complete 30 or more of designated honors coursework with an overall GPA between 3.0 and 3.49 will graduate with Honors in University Honors.