The application for this year’s Honours Track is now open. But what does Honours Track really mean? Who can apply and how does it work? In order to clear this up, Lundtan had an interview with Anna Thomasson, the Head of the Bachelor program in Business and Economics, associate professor, senior lecturer and programme administrator for Honours Track and asked all the questions we could think of according to the program.

For how long has the Honours Track program been here at EHL?  

• The reason why we started Honours Track here was to give the most motivated students at the Bachelor program something challenging to take on. The program has been available for students for about 4-5 years.

When is the application open and who can apply?

• The application has already opened, it opened the 16th of April and will be open until the 11th of May. Students apply through Live@Lund and the ones who can apply for the program are the students who are on their second semester at the Bachelor of Science in Business and Economics program. Only students who are on the program can apply since it’s not an independent course. There are some criteria for the students who want to apply, besides being on the second semester on the program the students must have completed all their exams on the first try. Exceptions are only made if there is a valid medical certificate. The criteria are made to ensure us that the students will be able to handle the extra workload that the course will imply but also to motivate them to keep up with the pace. When we are choosing the student we are also looking at their grades.

How does the program work?

• If you get accepted to the program you will have four themes to choose from and every student is supposed to pick two. Since Honours Track is ongoing during the third and fourth semester of the Bachelor program, there will be one theme for every semester. Every year there will be different themes to choose from and this time the students can choose between: Sustainability (FEK), Digitalization (Commercial Law), Empirical Economics (NEK) and Persistence or change in long term economic growth (Economic History). How the program is disposed is up to every group but there have to be four meetings every semester. At the meetings, the students will discuss scientific articles with their tutor. This is a great opportunity to dig deeper into the subjects and discuss with a professional within the subject.

How many students are accepted to the program and who is in charge of the tuition?

• The amount of students who are accepted to the program varies and we are flexible when choosing. The optimal amount of students every semester is 12, three students for every theme. But since we never know who will apply and for what theme, we sometimes expand or reduce the amount of students in every groups according to the demand. Every group will be assigned a tutor who is either a teacher at the school or a researcher within the subject.

How heavy is the workload?

• The workload will of course depend on the student. There is not a final exam at the end of the program unlike the rest of the courses, but there is a lot of reading to do, and some might be quite difficult. Before every meeting, the students are expected to reflect about the texts and be prepared for discussion. The program is aimed for students who want to challenge themselves and who are ready to put down some extra work into understanding the economic topics.

Will the program be a part of the bachelor degree?

• The students who have completed Honours Track will be assigned 10 hp for every semester in addition to the points that is given for the courses at the Bachelor program. Besides that, there will be a ceremony at the end of the program where each student will be assigned with a certificate from the principle of the School of Business and Economics. The ceremony is sponsored by one of the main sponsors of the school and is always a enjoyable event!

Final question, why do you think students should apply for Honours Track?

• Honours Track is a great opportunity to expand your resume and get dig deeper into a subject within business and/or economics. Besides collecting more knowledge and a greater understanding for the economic topics, the program improves your general education and is focused on handling topics that is discussed in the public debate unlike the courses at the bachelor program.

In addition to telling me everything about the Honours Track program, Anna took advantage of the opportunity to mention a new program that is introduced this year, a program in project development. The program is available for students at all faculties at Lund University and together you will develop your own project or adopt a challenge from an existing organization. Just like Honours Track, this is an great opportunity expand your resume and in this case, learn more about entrepreneurship.

Read more about Honours Track here: https://www.ehl.lu.se/utbildning/program-och-kurser/nyborjarprogram/ekonomie-kandidatprogrammet/honours-track

Read more about the project development program here: https://www.ehl.lu.se/utbildning/program-och-kurser/nyborjarprogram/ekonomie-kandidatprogrammet/kurs-i-projektutveckling