title: Does awarding a medical degree with honours act as a motivator or demotivator to student learning?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To look at students' support for, and perception of, the effects of awarding a degree with honours.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaires were given to all medical students from those entering year 1 to those graduating, i.e. six cohorts. We performed quantitative and qualitative analyses on the responses.
  
  
  METHODS
  University of Manchester.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 1618 students, 1290 responded (80%). The majority of students thought that we should have a system to award a degree with honours (968/1290[75%]), but this support was related to a number of variables. When asked to rate their agreement to a series of statements, students from the later years were more likely to disagree that an honours system is a helpful motivator for students to learn (Kruskal-Wallis; P < 0.0001). In contrast, those students with 'points' counting towards an honours degree were more likely to agree that there should be an honours system (chi2[1]=18.7, P < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most students supported the honours system. However, there was less support from students in later years. The qualitative analysis showed a mixture of views. There was a relationship between the probability of being awarding a degree with honours and support of the system.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morris
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*