Honour Specialist Qualification Courses in General Studies
Admission Requirements

Prerequisites:
1. Must be registered with the Ontario College of Teachers or hold an interim Certificate of Qualification. It is no longer necessary to send in a copy of your Certificate of Qualification. We have access to this information via the OCT Public Registry.

2. Official university transcripts(s) (sent directly from the institution OR delivered to the AQ office in a sealed envelope) showing proof of an acceptable academic university degree conferred by an accredited institution acceptable to the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Teachers, with a minimum of 20 full university degree credit courses or the equivalent. Courses required for teaching certification or additional teaching qualifications cannot be used for this requirement. Please note this includes all undergraduate programs/courses at all institutions.

3. Official university transcript(s) showing one of the following:

1. For a single Honour Specialist, proof of successful completion of 9 full university degree credit courses or the equivalent in the subject in which the Honour Specialist qualification is being sought with an overall average of at least a "B" or "70%".
   OR
2. For a combined Honour Specialist, proof of successful completion of 14 full university degree credit courses or the equivalent in the 2 subjects in which the combined Honour Specialist qualification is being sought, including no fewer than 6 full university degree credit courses or the equivalent in each subject. Each subject area must have an overall average of at least a "B" or "70%". Both of the Honour Specialist courses in the combination must be successfully completed before the qualification will be recommended to the Ontario College of Teachers to be added to the Certificate of Qualification.
   OR

3. For two separate single Honour Specialist qualifications in two subjects, of the 20 full university degree credit courses or the equivalent, applicants must have 9 full university degree credit courses in each of the two subjects in which the Honour Specialist Qualifications are being sought. Each set of 9 full university degree credit courses must have an overall average of at least a "B" or "70%". Courses, which have been previously used for admission to an Honour Specialist course, cannot be used for admission to any other Honour Specialist course. 

4. Evidence of at least two (2) years of successful teaching experience, including one (1) year of experience  in the subject area in which the Honour Specialist qualification(s) is being sought. This experience must be certified by the appropriate Supervisory Officer on the OISE 'Certificate of Teaching Experience Form' (found in the 'Forms & Handbooks' section of this site.

NOTE: For a combined Honour Specialist, proof of teaching experience is required in only one of the areas and the Honour Specialist course in that subject must be completed first.

Applicants who have applied for a single Honour Specialist but who do not meet the prerequisites may also be considered for a combined Honour Specialist. It is OISE's practice to process an application for one of the combined subjects, and to advise the applicant accordingly.

NOTE: Exceptions and additional requirements are noted below*.
 

Important Additional Information for Applying to Honour Specialist Courses:

1. None of the admission requirements will be altered or waived.

2. Candidates who attend or complete an Honour Specialist Additional Qualification course for which they do not have the prerequisites and for which they have not received an official letter of clear acceptance from the Continuing Education Office, do so at their own risk.

3. The Continuing Education Office reserves the right to withdraw any candidate who submits documentation after the start of the session and who is subsequently found to be unqualified.

4. Academic assessments for Honour Specialist Additional Qualification courses are carefully conducted by OISE within the rules and guidelines established by the Education Act 184/97 and the University of Toronto. However, applicants should be aware that the outcome of our assessments may differ from assessments conducted by other organizations such as OSSTF, QECO and the Ontario College of Teachers.

5. If course work has been completed at more than one university, official transcripts from each university attended are required in order for OISE to complete the academic assessment.

6. Each official transcript must be included with the application in a sealed envelope, signed/stamped by the issuing institution. The transcripts you receive in sealed envelopes are confidential and not to be opened. Some institutions will not provide you with transcripts in sealed envelopes. In this case, official transcripts should be sent directly from the issuing institution to the OISE Continuing Education Office. Please note that we do not have access to transcripts from other University of Toronto faculties.

7. Transcripts received in unsealed envelopes are not considered official, nor are faxed copies of transcripts. Please note that we do not have access to transcripts from other University of Toronto faculties. Please also be aware that we do not return transcripts to applicants - once submitted, transcripts become and remain the property of the University, subject to the Policy on Access to Official Academic Records.

8. If prerequisite courses are not clearly defined by subject on the transcripts(s) the applicant will be required to provide a letter from the appropriate Department of the issuing university verifying the validity of the subject orientation before a final decision can be made on the Honour Specialist Additional Qualification academic assessment. For example, if an applicant wishes to use Drama courses towards an Honour Specialist Additional Qualification in English, the applicant would ask the English Department of the university where the courses were completed to verify that the Drama courses would be acceptable as English courses towards an English degree at that University.

9. OISE may apply undergraduate as well as graduate courses, as necessary, towards the academic assessment for admission to Honour Specialist courses, unless an applicant explicitly requests that certain courses not be included in the assessment. Such a request must be submitted in writing at the time of application.

*Computer Studies Honour Specialist: Student must be able to demonstrate superior skills in advanced computer programming applications.

*International Languages Honour Specialist: Successful completion of the language proficiency test at OISE within the last 3 years (includes French, Spanish, German and Italian).

*Science-General Honour Specialist: Student must have at least one course from each stream of Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics). 

*Social Sciences Honour Specialist: Acceptable Social Sciences-related subjects include Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Law, Philosophy and Politics.

*Visual Arts Honour Specialist: A minimum six out of the required nine courses must be studio-oriented courses (i.e not Art History or culture).