The UHP curriculum is designed to complement the student’s intellectual progression from entrance to graduation. Honors courses empower students to become knowledge investigators and problem-solvers and encourages them to take charge of their own learning.

Typically, UHP students begin their Honors academic experience by taking HONR 111 Perspectives and Understanding, the course that provides an introduction to the critical thinking and analytical skills that the program fosters, and by choosing from a variety General Education courses that carry honors credit. These courses strengthen students’ foundation for success in their major and in the upper-division UHP classes.

With their General Education classes complete or nearly complete, UHP students move on to specially designed seminars, Honors classes in some majors, internships, and research experiences. Each year the UHP solicits proposals for interdisciplinary seminars and for departmental seminars that are suitable for Honors students. The resulting classes often break new ground as in HONR 294 African-American Literature, which as a result the university’s TEAL classroom was taught in collaboration with a similar class at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.

UHP students conclude their Honors experience by taking the HONR 499 Capstone and/or their departmental research or creative capstone course. In either case, the course enables students to choose their own problem or question and to complete a project related to that question or problem. In 499, for example, UHP students tackle a problem in Billings or in a Billings organization, thereby extending and strengthening their problem-solving skills by applying them in the community. 

Students may also earn Honors credit with independent study courses and Honors contracts. These options enable students to explore topics of their own choosing and to gain Honors credit for courses typically in their major or required for their own academic program that do not carry such credit.