Courses
A complete listing of courses in the Bachelor of Arts major and honours in PPE and their pre-requisites can be found in the Academic Calendar.
Not all courses are offered every year. Therefore students are advised to pay careful attention to the planned patterns of course rotation and to seek advice from your program advisor as needed.
For a listing of all courses offered this year, see the course timetables. The timetable template can also help you in planning your schedule.
To keep track of the courses you have taken it is useful to fill in a degree audit form.
Convenor
The convenor of the Frank McKenna School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics is responsible for the direction and administration of the School. The Convenor also provides academic advising to PPE students.
Dr. David Thomas
506-364-2211
dthomas@mta.ca
Program advisors
Philosophy
Dr. Roopen Majithia
506-364-2337
rmajithia@mta.ca
Politics
Dr. Mario Levesque
506-364-2165
malevesque@mta.ca
Economics
Dr. Carla VanBeselaere
506-364-2278
cvanbese@mta.ca
Programs
The Departments of Economics, Philosophy, and Politics and International Relations offer an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts major and honours in philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE).
See the Academic Calendar for the courses required for each program and their pre-requisites.
Students can also contact the program advisors for advice.
Degree audit forms
Degree audit forms are a convenient way of keeping track of the course requirements. There are separate forms for each of the options. The forms change each year as the required courses change. These changes typically occur as a result of new courses created by the participating departments.
It is important to note that the course requirements change periodically so the requirements in one calendar can be different from those in another calendar.
Because of this there is the regulation 11.1.1 — graduating under one calendar — which gives students the option of graduating under any one calendar in force during their registration.
Honours
An honours in PPE has a disciplinary emphasis on either philosophy, politics, or economics.
An honours degree is only awarded if students meet the regulations contained in the Academic Calendar.
Honours GPA and overall GPA requirements
Academic Calendar regulation 10.10.4
- A degree with first class honours requires attainment of a 3.7 Grade Point Average in the prescribed honours work.
- A degree with honours requires attainment of a 3.0 Grade Point Average in the prescribed honours work.
- When a thesis is part of the program, a minimum grade of B is required in all cases.
- In addition, an overall Grade Point Average of approximately 3.0 must be earned by all honours candidates on all work, including repeated courses, undertaken beyond the first year at Mount Allison. For those in full-time attendance at Mount Allison for three years or fewer, this average will be calculated on all Mount Allison courses taken.
Course requirements for honours
The Academic Calendar also lays out the specific course requirements (the prescribed honours work).
There are three options when pursuing honours in PPE:
- PPE honours, philosophy emphasis
- PPE honours, politics emphasis
- PPE honours, economics emphasis
Each option has specific course requirements. The course requirements were carefully chosen to assure the academic integrity of each option.
Declaration of intent
Students applying for an honours program must declare their intention in year three, by December by completing the declaration to pursue honours form.
Integrative essay
Students in both the PPE majors and honours programs will write an integrative essay in one of their 4000 level courses in philosophy, in politics, or in economics that demonstrates their capacity to draw on fundamental concepts from all three contributing disciplines of the PPE Program.
This is an important part of the degree program and students should start thinking about how they will meet this requirement shortly after they officially declare their intent to pursue honours in December of their third year.
The faculty member teaching the course will evaluate the integrative essay. Two faculty members in the two other contributing disciplines will be available for consultation, and will be designated by the faculty member teaching the course in consultation with the students.
Process
The student must choose the 4000-level course in any one of the three PPE disciplines in which they will submit the integrative essay.
Typically, the integrative essay will be the already assigned research paper/essay in the chosen course.
When choosing the course students should keep in mind:
- not all 4000 level courses have an essay requirement
- the faculty member teaching the chosen course does not have to supervise the integrative essay
Consequently, the student must do some planning and consultation to meet the integrative essay requirement.
Ideally the student will meet with the professor of the chosen course before the beginning of classes to:
- inform them that they would like the course paper to be used to meet the integrative essay requirement for the PPE degree
- discuss how integration might be achieved
- suggest potential consulting faculty members in the other disciplines
If a meeting cannot be arranged prior to first day of classes, students must arrange a meeting very early in the term. The meeting does not have to establish the topic of the integrative essay but it will have to generate consent from the professor of the course who will also designate the consulting faculty members. The student must then ask consulting faculty members if they are willing to take on this role.
In most cases, the professor teaching the chosen course will evaluate the paper using the criteria established for all students in the class and make a second judgement about whether the paper meets the integrative essay requirement. When in doubt the professor can consult with the chosen faculty members from the other disciplines.
Students should try to finalize the topic of their integrative essay as early in the term as possible. Once a topic has been chosen the student should arrange a short meeting with the course professor and at least one of the consulting faculty members to discuss the paper to ensure multidisciplinary integration from the outset. The consulting faculty may in turn communicate their suggestions to the course professor.
DO NOT begin the writing process before meeting with the consulting faculty members. The supervisor and the two consulting faculty members may meet after the integrative essay has been submitted but before it is graded to assure the supervisor has the input from consulting faculty on the integrative aspects of the essay.
Integrative essay checklist
Students should download and have supervising and consulting faculty members sign and date the integrative essay checklist.
» Integrative essay checklist (pdf)