Honors Program

Why participate in the Honors Program?

The Honors Program is more challenging and demanding than standard IES courses. It involves more work on the part of the students, but at the same time it is very attractive for self-motivated students with an interest in undertaking thesis work in the future and who want to achieve a higher level of integration into the local culture and society:

It allows the student great freedom in planning studies
It brings fellow honors students into close contact.
It allows for quality student-faculty interaction, both one-on-one and seminar-based.
It provides students with higher order skills, laying a base for future research and thesis work.
It approaches the material from an innovative perspective.
It emphasizes interactive teacher-student/student-student techniques that are not possible for larger classes.
It promotes learning outside the formal classroom setting<
It applies principles learned in class to "real-life" situations.
It explores connections between various discipines.
It provides opportunities for written or public presentation of work.
It emphasizes the use of primary sources, as opposed to secondary readings.

Furthermore, the Honors Program will give students the opportunity to acquire key skills helping them to:

Engage in critical thinking.
Evaluate evidence.
Apply the different methodological techniques drawn upon by student projects.
Analyse and interpret arguments.
Communicate using verbal and writtem forms of presentation.
Foster teamwork.

The Honors Program is also designed to provide a number of transferable skills:

Leadership skills
Communicational skills
Presentational skills
Research skills
IT skills
Information management skills
Problem-solving skills

What does the Honors Program consist of?

A compulsory course (Research Seminar) and a compulsory student project (accompanied by Honors Tutorial).
A Spanish language course (please check our language policy for exceptions to this rule)
Three general courses from IES or Outside Institutions.

See table below for more details.

All students MUST sign up for a total of between 15 and 19 credits.

Location	Course offerings	Credits
IES	Research Methodology Seminar / Student Project(mandatory)	4
IES	Spanish language (mandatory for all but SP400 students)	4 or 7
IES	Area Studies (Spanish)	3
IES	Area Studies (English)	3
Outside	Regular courses (Spanish)	3 - 4
Outside	Regular courses (English)	3 - 4
Outside	Internship	3

Students have the option of taking the Honors Program in Spanish or in English

English option:Students must take a major-related course and a Spanish Language class. The Honors Project can be carried out in English
Spanish option:Students must take a major-related course an dan area studies course taught in Spanish. The Honors Project must be carried out in Spanish

Requirements and Application:

To sign up for the Honors Program, you will need to fulfill the following requirements:

GPA 3.5 (minimum)
Application Form - to be submitted by fax (011 34 93 302 4557)or on-site in Barcelona one week before the end of drop / add.
Recommendation letter - from home university advisor on university letter-head to be submitted by fax (011 34 93 302 4557) or on-site in Barcelona one week before the end of drop / add.
Honors students must take the Research Seminar
The Honors Project must be connected to the student´ major
Students must take at least one course related to his/her major

Honors Program Structure

The Honors Program has two compulsory elements:The Research Seminar and The Honors Tutorial. The Seminar and Tutorial form the core of the program, and are compulsory for all Honors Students. They give a total of 4 credits.

Research Seminar (from week 1 to week 12).
It is composed of two modules:
- Module A - Methodology Workshop (from week 1 to week 6)
  At the end of this module, the student must deliver a Research Project Proposal. It should be a detailed research program that includes aims, methodology, and research hypothesis as well as a tentative timeline. This proposal must be signed and approved by the Research Tutor, who will accompany the student during the Tutorial.
- Module B - Writing Workshop (from week 7 to week 12)
  The aim of the Writing Workshop is to help the student write scholarly sections of his research project, using accepted style norms and convincing arguments.
Honors Tutorial (from week 4 to week 12)

Independent study, supervised by an IES faculty member acting as Research Tutor. This part is composed of:
- Tutorial meetings Weekly research guidance sessions, focusing on student project assessment.
- Project development Implementation of the research proposal according to the planned timeline, methodologies and tutor guidelines.
- Honors Project writing Scholarly or reflection paper of the research approved by the assigned tutor.
- Public Defense of the Honors Project Honors Project presentation in an open public session, with the participation of faculty, IES staff and students.

Honors Project Research

The Research Seminar intoruces students to qualitative and quantitative research methods for engaging with institutions and subjects in the field. The course is taught in workshop format.

In the weekly seminar, students are introduced to challenging fieldwork methods such as participant observation, interviewing, market research techniques, surveying, focus groups, etc. As students become more engaged in their research projects, they test their language proficiency, or their capacity to gain access and negotiate with locals, as well as ponder over ethical dimensions. The end pont of this exercise is to gain theory and knowledge from practice, and to transmit it in the form of an academic Honors Project.

With the help of an on-site faculty advisor, each Honors student identifies and element of teh local society they would like to research. Thiis topic becomes the student's main research interest for their Honors Project. This research can be on any topic from teh social sciences, humanities, arts or physical sciences. Students are encouraged to choose topics that can be completed in one semester and which involve high levles of interaction with the local population. At the same time, to really benefit from the study abroad opportunity, students are encouraged to avoid topics which can be completed in a U.S. setting. Nevertheless, this project can form the core of a senior thesis when the student returns home.

Honors Project Types

The project can take several forms

Scholarly Paper: Literature review and use of secondary sources to provide a significant contribution to the field of study.
Research Paper: built on first-hand data, interviews, sources or fieldwork research which creates new knowledge.
Business or NGO plan: design of a business or NGO development plan including marketing, financial and strategic plans and their implementation*.
Education Unit: (for education majors) Design of pedagogy, learner outcomes, class activities and lesson plans*.
Portfolio or Performance: (for fine and performance arts students) Compilation of student artwork or a creative product (documentary, exhibition, etc.)*

Honors Tutors

Tutors can help students in their research by: offering guidance in teh selection of projects; being available for consultation and advice; and speaking on the students behalf at meetings. Students who, for whatever reason, wish to change their tutor can do so by consulting with the Honors Program Coordinator. All honors projects are assessed by the assigned tutors.

If you would like more information about the Honors Program, please email Alex Walker at awalker@iesbarcelona.org