Honors Program Information For Faculty

The College Honors Program, administered by the College of Letters & Science, extends a welcome to our current faculty! The links below contain forms and information for those who are collaborating—or considering collaboration—with students in the Honors Program.

Participating faculty members who commit to teach an Honors Seminar (not Sections) receive a $3,000 research stipend, and their respective home departments receive $300 for supplies and expenses.

If you have any questions about the program, please contact Kate von der Lieth at kvonderlieth@ltsc.ucsb.edu .  Thank you for supporting academic excellence at UCSB!

Seminars

Online Faculty Application Form

The Honors Program is currently accepting Honors Seminar proposals for 2024 academic year. To receive highest priority consideration, please submit your Spring 2024 proposal by Friday, January 19th. Proposals received after this date will be considered if funding allows. Faculty teaching Honors Seminars will receive $3,000 in research funding. An additional $300 will be provided to the faculty member’s department for supplies and expenses associated with the seminar.

  • Fall 2024:  Monday March 18th. This first deadline give you the best option for desired day/time/room availabilty. The next deadline will be Monday April 15th.  Proposals submitted after this last deadline will be considered if funding allows
  • Winter 2024: TBD
  • Spring 2024 - Has passed

Seminar Guidelines

All current faculty who are members of the Academic Senate in the College of Letters and Science are invited to submit a proposal for an Honors Seminar to be taught in 2023.  Each seminar will be two units with a corresponding workload, and must be taught on a letter-graded basis. These seminars will be open only to lower-division students enrolled in the Honors Program. Total enrollment in each seminar should be approximately twenty students.

An Honors Seminar should provide an introduction to a specific research problem or set of interrelated problems. It should aim to stimulate students’ interest and prepare them for advanced study in the relevant discipline.

All Honors Seminars will be listed as Interdisciplinary 84AA-ZZ (lower division). Each seminar will meet for a total of twenty hours per quarter. Note: as of Fall 2019, we are no longer offering upper-division honors seminars.

Additional guidelines for honors seminars:

  • Only current Letters and Science Honors Program students may take honors seminars (INT 84AA-ZZ).
  • INT 84AA-ZZ is restricted to lower division students during enrollment. Exceptions to this level restriction are at the discretion of the instructor.
  • To earn honors experience credit for the seminar, students must complete the seminar with a letter grade of B or better.

Funding

Funding for Honors Seminars is provided for both course support and a faculty incentive. Participating faculty receive a $3,000 research stipend (not salary), and each department will receive $300 per seminar for supplies and expenses.

The research stipend may be used for any research-related activity. To date, it has been used for books, equipment, a laptop computer, and to fund a research assistant. It also may be used towards professionally-related travel.

The $300 course support funds can be used to pay for expenses associated with the course including: copies, handouts, a video for class, transportation on a field trip, museum admission, etc.

Submitting a Proposal

To submit a course proposal, please visit the online application and complete all fields. If your seminar is approved, the College of Letters & Science will take care of all room scheduling, book orders, media requirements and publicity.

Sections

Students in the College Honors Program may enroll in special enrichment Honors Sections that accompany large lecture classes. These sections are sometimes an enriched version of the required discussion for the class. Other times faculty require honors students to attend a regular section and in addition, offer a series of weekly meetings for honors students. Either method is acceptable. Our hope is that honors students have an intensive experience with the subject matter of the class, and that they be supervised directly by faculty. The words Course Honors will be noted on the transcripts of those students who earn a B or higher in the course, normally within two weeks after grades are available. No additional units are given for this honors coursework, except in those cases in which the honors work is done in an ancillary honors course listed in the UCSB General Catalog and Schedule of Classes.

Guidelines for Honors Sections

  1. Ideally, the Honors Section is to be limited to 20 students; however, with increased student interest in the Honors Program, we leave the final decision about the size of the section up to the instructor.

    Priority should be given to students in the Honors Program. Students not in the Honors Program may be admitted at the discretion of the instructor. To help assess academic promise or proven success of students not in the Honors Program, students can be asked to provide an unofficial transcript, available on demand through GOLD.

  2. The section should preferably meet at least one hour per week.

  3. The assignments should preferably include additional work above the normal class requirements.

  4. The section should be taught by the faculty member in charge of the course, usually an Academic Senate member.

  5. Instructors should notify their department's undergraduate advisor of their intent to offer an Honors Section; Honors Program staff will contact department advisors to create a list of Honors Sections being offered.

  6. A stipend of $300 maximum per honors section will be offered to section instructors at the beginning of the quarter. The stipend can be used to pay expenses associated with the section, including: copies, a video for class, transportation on a field trip, museum admission, pizza, etc.

Funding

Instructors of Honors Sections are eligible to request an honors stipend of $300 maximum per Honors Section. It is critical that instructors notify their department's undergraduate advisor about offering an upcoming Honors Section in order to receive a stipend offer from Honors Program staff at the beginning of the quarter. Within the first few weeks of the quarter, instructors interested in a stipend must submit an online Honors Stipend Request Form describing how the stipend will be used. 

Stipend Usage Guidelines:

The stipend of $300 maximum per Honors Section can be used to pay for expenses associated with the Honors Section, including: copies, pizza, a video for class, transportation on a field trip, museum admission, etc.

Contracts

Questions & Answers about Honors Contracts - A Guide for Faculty
Commonly asked questions for faculty about developing Honors Contracts with students.