To teach an Honors course, professors must first apply to become members of the Honors faculty. This may be done prior to submitting materials for a new Honors course or section, or may be done simultaneously.

Honors classes aim to combine the University's best teachers with high-ability and high-achieving students who want to get the most out of their education and who are especially likely to be planning to attend graduate or professional schools. The aim is not to make courses more difficult, but to make them more challenging and engaging. It is not unusual for such courses to contain less "busy work" but more challenging assignments; such classes are more likely to have essay tests than multiple choice tests; they almost always give greater focus to theoretical issues and outside scholarship than to rote memorization. Because Honors classes are smaller, they are almost always more interactive and generally involve greater classroom discussion.

For more information, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dr. Philip Phillips, Associate Dean, at Philip.Phillips@mtsu.edu or 615-898-2699.

 

New Honors Section of an Existing Course

If a professor wants to propose a new Honors section of an existing course, that professor must submit a current syllabus and a proposed syllabus for the Honors class indicating the Honors component(s). This might involve special class presentations, greater focus on lab work, field work, or other forms of "hands-on" learning, or more detailed and meaningful research or writing projects. The Honors Council will not approve a class for Honors credit simply on the basis that the class will have a longer paper or unspecified additional work. The syllabus must be accompanied by the appropriate paperwork in the proper format.

New Honors Section Form (please use your Pipeline username and password to access this form)

New Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar Topic

Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar is a special topics course and is currently offered as two different course numbers: UH 3500 and UH 4600. This course introduces students to the political, social, economic, scientific, artistic, and/or humanistic aspects of culture, using an interdisciplinary approach. Reading materials are drawn from literature, history, philosophy, science, art, and/or any other areas relevant to the semester topic. See class schedule for current semester’s topics. Students may take either course more than one time as topics change. Topics may be repeated if the faculty is available to teach the topic again in a future semester.

To propose a new topic please use the form below. You will be asked to submit a course description, a syllabus, and a letter of support from your department chair to teach this class in a future semester. In addition to the syllabus, you will also be asked to provide a brief justification of the course in terms of its uniqueness or distinctiveness and in terms of its interdisciplinary scope.

All topic proposals are reviewed by the Honors Council before final approval is given. 

New Interdisciplinary Seminar Topic Form (please use your Pipeline username and password to access this form)