Honours information

Start transforming tomorrow

The Faculty of Science and Engineering is home to a variety of honours projects across its four science focuses - Marine, Earth, Plant and Environmental. Completing honours work can be challenging but is a rewarding way to begin your career.

Explore honours projects in the Faculty of Science and Engineering
Ashlee Cable, a Bachelor of Science student, stands in a Southern Cross classroom laboratory with lab coat while her fellow students work behind her surrounded by microscopes, test tubes, screens, and other science equipment.

Admission criteria

If you are working towards your honours degree, you need to maintain a grade point average of a Credit or its equivalent, preferably have a distinction for your integrated project, can demonstrate improved academic performance or have professional experience in the area you wish to research.

Apply: Bachelor of Engineering Systems (Honours)

Study mode and commencement dates

Whether you choose to study your Honours full-time or part-time there are three commencement dates - the start of session 1, 2 and 3.

If you have any further questions you can contact the Honours Program Coordinator.

Apply: Bachelor of Science with Honours

How to apply

  1. Download and read the latest 2024 Honours Handbook
  2. Decide what area of interest you would like to study. Be inspired by our honours students, review the available honours projects and then find out which academic staff member may be qualified to supervise you
  3. Complete a to submit with your application
  4. Apply online through your chosen honours course.
Existing students apply through My Enrolment

Current Scholarships

The Faculty Science and Engineering currently offers scholarships for students interested in working on the following honours projects:

Honours projects

Ecology and Environmental Management

Environmental engineering and waste management

Groundwater

  • Groundwater nutrient and pesticides in the Great Barrier Reef - Dr Douglas Tait
  • Uncovering the role groundwater discharge has in coastal greenhouse gas and nutrient cycling - Dr Douglas Tait

Medicinal plant chemistry

  • Analysis of biologically active metabolites in medicinal plants (scholarship available) - Dr Ben Liu
  • Understanding the biochemical basis for the delicious taste and smell of coffee (scholarship available) - Dr Ben Liu

Metals and toxicology

Palaeosciences

Plant biochemistry, nutrition and pathology

  • Analysis of nutritionally important compounds in food (scholarship available) - Dr Ben Liu
  • How does microbial redox activity in the root zone of plants influence phosphorus availability? - Professor Andrew Rose
  • Studies into stem blight diseases of Horticultural Crops - Dr Jay Anderson

Regional and urban planning

Society, culture and education

Spatial sciences

Vegetated aquatic systems

 

Pest and Disease

  • Managing American Foulbrood Disease in smallholder Pacific Island beekeeping systems - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Novel methods for marking Small Hive Beetle (Athida Tumida) - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Managing Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella) in smallholder Pacific Island beekeeping systems - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Understanding and improving honey bee biosecurity strategies in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Development of a bee hive design for the Small Asian Honey Bee (Apis cerana javana) - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Understating impacts of Apis cerana on managed Apis mellifera honey bees in far north QLD - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Novel approaches to sterilizing beekeeping inputs following bacterial brood infection - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Enhancing pest and disease management strategies for Varroa and Tropilaelaps in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten

Nutrition

  • Developing a floral resource database for the beekeeping industry in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten

Technology

  • Investigation of alternative frames/foundation configuration systems for smallholder beekeepers in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten

Training, Education and Extension

  • Factors influencing income and resilience in small-holder beekeeping enterprises in Fiji and Papua New Guinea - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Factors influencing income and resilience in queen bee breeding operations in Fiji - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • A scoping review of Australian honey bee industry levied research - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Evaluating the effectiveness and opportunities for improving working conditions for Pacific Island people under the Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Identifying challenges and lessons learnt by young professionals in international agricultural research for development - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Limitations to women’s involvement in beekeeping: A case study of Australian women in apiculture - Dr Cooper Schouten

 

Coral reefs

Fisheries and aquaculture

Marine chemistry

Marine Invertebrates

Marine productivity

Marine sustainability

  • Marine invertebrates and plastic pollution - Dr Benjamin Mos
  • Marine turtle use of sub-tropical coastal habitat - Dr Debra Stokes

Beekeeping

  • Investigating Seasonal Population Dynamics and Economic Thresholds of Varroa destructor in Subtropical Australia - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Developing and evaluating novel monitoring methods for Varroa destructor - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Optimizing organic acaricide control methods for Varroa destructor in subtropical Australia - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Quantifying the decline in pollination services due to loss of feral honey bees - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Enhancing pest and disease management strategies for Varroa and Tropilaelaps in pacific island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Assessing the nutritional value of pollens crucial to the Australian honey bee industry - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Evaluating the impact and outcomes of the pacific labour mobility scheme - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Investigating regenerative beekeeping principles and practices - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Limitations to women’s involvement in beekeeping: a case study of Australian women in apiculture - Dr Cooper Schouten
  • Investigating the impact of sugar composition and nutritional value on honey bee health - Dr Cooper Schouten

Physiology

Nutrients and recycling

  • Antibiotics in pesticide residues in composted wastes (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose
  • The value of raw and composted manures as nitrogen fertilisers (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose
  • Struvite as a recycled phosphorus fertiliser (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose