+Honors Contract Courses

With prior approval, an upper-level Honors College student can opt to use the +Honors Contract Course option to partially complete the Honors College course and credit hour requirements. No student may enroll in more than TWO contract courses* and +Honors Contract Courses are not open to first-year students. 

The +Honors Contract Course option requires a student to enter into an agreement with a full-time faculty member (exceptions may be made, but only at the discretion of the Dean of the Honors College) to pursue a unique, enhanced, and enriched plan of study for a particular course.

A +Honors Contract Course must match the intellectual integrity of all other Honors courses, and be based on substantive, rigorous, and deeper learning. The plan of study must be shown to go substantially beyond the normal requirements of the course and must enrich the student’s academic experience. +Honors Contract Courses are not simply “read more, write more” or added work, but rather require a creative and thoughtful approach to enriching existing assignments or enhancing the class with a distinctive project in scope, skill, effort, and expectations. 

Please also note that all +Honors Contract Courses require at least four additional meetings with the professor outside of class. 

Additional information and the +Honors Contract Course form can be found by clicking the link for the submission, below.

Contract Guidelines

1. All paperwork and documentation for a +Honors Contract Course must be submitted and approved no later than the end of add/drop at the beginning of each semester. No exceptions will be made. 
2. Prior approval to enroll in and use this option is required. You must meet with (in-person or via Zoom) or engage in an email correspondence with a representative of the Honors College (the Dean or an advisor) to get advanced permission. Please be prepared to provide all of the following:
   1. Course title, number (e.g. Barbecue and Soul Food 01:090:498)
   2. Course day(s) and time, semester 
   3. Professor Name, Department, and Title (e.g. Henry Rutgers, History, Assistant Professor)           
3. You must then meet (in-person or over Zoom, according to their preferences) with the faculty member of the course prior to beginning of the semester to develop the plan of enriched and enhanced study.
4. The faculty member, in consultation with the academic department, must agree that this option is viable.
5. The student and professor must agree to the specifics of the work assigned and be able to meet outside of class, a minimum of four times, to discuss the student’s level of progress using the +Honors Contract Course option.
6. A +Honors Contract Course must include at least one component of public scholarship–the presentation of the student's enriched outcomes either in class, at a University or Honors College poster presentation event, or through e-versions of webpages, blog posts, etc. 

Contract Prohibitions

1. Students cannot contract a course that already has an honors section attached to it.
2. The +Honors Contract Course option cannot be used for Honors College Capstone work or graduate courses (effective Spring 2023).
3. You cannot take more than two +Honors Contract Courses in fulfillment of the College curricular requirements. [* This restriction does not apply to MGSA students at this time.]
4. +Honors Contract Courses are not open to first-year students.

Faculty Guidelines

1. Faculty must agree to add substantive and meaningful adaptations or extensions of assignments that will enrich the entire semester-long course. 

2. A contract cannot consist of a single, additional end-of-term paper, or a similar self-directed assignment; all contract work must be sustained, embedded, and enriched.

3. Faculty must agree to integrate the additional work into the grading and the course outcomes, so that the Honors work impacts the student's final performance. 

4. If there is an issue with the student’s level of progress, the faculty member must contact the Honors College Academic Advising at hcadvising@rutgers.edu.

Students, please submit the form below and remember to attach the syllabus and a brief description of the adjusted coursework that you will undertake. The description must include all specific information about timelines, enriched or expanded reading lists, extended or expanded projects, additional areas of inquiry, specific dates for student-faculty meetings, and deadlines.

All required materials must be submitted before the last day of the Add/Drop registration period; no late submissions will be accepted.

Formal and official approval will be communicated within one business week of that deadline.