A stack of books with a diploma and graduation cap.

FAS renames medial degree plan to Joint Honours

The Faculty of Arts and Science offers multidisciplinary Honours Plans where students can combine studies in two distinct areas of the student’s choosing. Senate recently approved a name change for the plan to Joint Honours from the archaic Medial terminology.

Queen’s is the only university in Canada to use the name Medial. Joint Honours is a more widely understood and accepted term across the Canadian university landscape.

In the presentation to Senate, it was noted that the use of the word Medial is confusing to prospective and current students, both about what it is, as well as its benefits. This confusion results in students choosing Major plans and/or Major/Minor plans to avoid the uncertain consequences of graduating with a Medial.

The new term Joint Honours more accurately represents both the weight/intensity of each area of study and recognized there are two distinct areas of significant concentration. It will also clear up any potential confusion for employers or graduates.

“Multidisciplinary degrees provide comprehensive training that equip students to lead across many sectors,” says Meghan Norris (Psychology). “Adopting the nomenclature of Joint Honours for our multidisciplinary degrees aligns our degree titles with peer institutions, allowing our students to quickly position themselves as experts in their chosen fields.”

This change will result in students’ transcripts and graduation diplomas using the new nomenclature of Joint Honours instead of Medial. The first graduating class with the new Joint Honours distinction will be in Fall 2022.

There are no changes to the academic requirements of existing Medial plans.

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