Postgraduate Qualifications: Honours, Merit and Distinction The Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences has reviewed the paper on postgraduate
qualifications and the award of Honours, Merit and Distinction and has the following comments to
make:
The Faculty supports the recommendation that Honours for Bachelors (Hons) postgraduate
degrees and Masters degrees be awarded consistently across the University, and the proposal in
Recommendation (i) is consistent with current practice in the Faculty and is already applied to the
following degrees: MHSc, MMedSc, MPH, MNurs, MAud, MHealthMgt, MPharmPrac, MMH,
BNurs(Hons), BHB (Hons).
The Faculty supports the recommendation that Distinction and Merit for Postgraduate Diplomas
and other qualifications eligible for the award of Distinction or Merit be awarded consistently
across the University, however it would like to recommend a variation to the basis of award.
When the Faculty’s Graduate Studies and Lifelong Learning Committee discussed the issue, their
recommendation was that the required GPA for the award of Merit in a Postgraduate Diploma
should be 5, to be consistent with entry to Masters programmes. All students awarded merit or
distinction would get entry to a Masters, others wouldn’t.
The Faculty has no specific feedback with regard to recommendations iii and iv.
Overall the Faculty is supportive of the efforts to introduce consistency and transparency into the
award of Honours and merit/distinction.