Undergraduate Program

Who is eligible to enrol?

The prerequisite for Art History & Theory honours is a credit average in 48 senior credit points of Art History & Theory.

If you do not meet this requirement, you should discuss your situation with the Honours Co-ordinator, Dr Keith Broadfoot; email: keith.broadfoot@usyd.edu.au


How do I enrol?
Prospective Art History and Theory IV students should make a preliminary registration with the Department. This is not a formal enrolment and does not commit you to Honours should you change your mind; it is simply helpful for the Department to gain some sense of student numbers, and for students as a way of beginning to think about supervisors and thesis topics.

* Students must then apply to enrol in Art History and Theory IV at the Faculty of Arts office.
Applications open in October for commencement in semester 1 of the following year and April for commencement in semester 2 of that year.

If you miss this deadline, it may still be possible for you to enrol, but you should contact the Honours Co-ordinator and Arts Faculty Office as soon as possible.

Once you have enrolled with Arts Faculty, you must also register in the Departmental Office by mid-December. You will be asked to register in person for your three options and to indicate your proposed thesis topic and supervisor. If you cannot attend during this time, you should contact the Honours Co-ordinator.

Can I do Honours part-time?

The Faculty of Arts requires all students to enrol initially in Honours as full-time. However, with Departmental approval, it is possible to change your enrollment to part-time. Valid reasons include the need to seek employment and medical or personal reasons. Remember, however, that Honours can only be done part-time over two consecutive years, ie you cannot take a break in the middle. To change your enrollment, you will need a letter of approval from the Honours Co-ordinator to take to Arts Faculty Office, where they will change your enrollment status.

Mid-year entry into Honours
It is now possible for students to enrol in Honours in mid-year, ie beginning in second semester. If you wish to consider this option, you should consult Arts Faculty Office and contact the Honours Co-ordinator.

UoS Assessment

The honours year comprises two semester-long units of study and a thesis of 15,000 -18,000 words in length. Art History & Theory honours students can commence their study either at the beginning of the year or mid-year.

Weighting of Honours year components
Thesis: 60%
Two Coursework Units: 40%

Students are also able to undertake Film Studies honours, please see the Film Studies website for further information.


Contact Emails:



Additional Information
While knowledge of another language is not compulsory, university education provides many opportunities for acquiring or improving language skills which may be difficult to find later. These language skills are essential for research in many cases and are often highly valued by future employers, particularly in museums and art galleries. Students wishing to proceed to postgraduate research in Art History are therefore strongly advised to acquire a good reading knowledge of a language other than English. Furthermore, much significant scholarship is not translated (or if it is, much of its meaning changes); moreover understanding of languages other than English helps one's command of English. A student may be precluded from doing postgraduate research in a particular area if s/he does not have reading knowledge of the appropriate language/s.