Bachelor Of Arts (Community & Environment)

Note: Students undertaking the BA at Bateman’s Bay, Bega, Moss Vale or Shoalhaven must complete a major in Community & Environment

Overview

Why does taking part in Anzac Day or preserving a piece of rainforest mean different things to different people? What part is played by the media, government, the community, scientists and industries in dealing with our environmental crisis? These are just a few questions the BA (Community & Environment) addresses.

The BA Community and Environment is unified in two ways:

• Subject content is presented in themes identified by local communities on the South Coast as useful and relevant. These themes are communication; environment; cultural heritage which includes literature, history and Aboriginal studies, and social policy. Australian material is presented within the context of the international scholarly literature.
• Students develop a range of intellectual and technical skills over the years of study. The University of Wollongong has a strong commitment to enabling students to graduate with a wide variety of attitudes, knowledge and skills. This degree has an emphasis on providing students with transferable skills in written and oral communication, problem solving, research and computer applications. Employers are looking for these skills.

Advanced Standing

Information about Approved Credit Transfer Arrangements is available at www.uow.edu.au/handbook/generalcourserules/UOW028672.html/

Course Requirements

The Bachelor of Arts (Community and Environment) is made up of 144 credit points of subjects listed in the course structures for the Faculty of Arts or the General Schedule. The degree requires students to complete the major in Community and Environment (78-80 credit points) as set out below. The remainder of the credit points in the degree can be made up of subjects from the Course Structures of the Faculty of Arts or the General Schedule. Students who wish to do so may complete another major study as well as Community and Environment, but this normally means that they commute to Wollongong for some subjects. For a list of other major studies available, please see the Bachelor of Arts (Course Code 702). In their first two semesters of study, students must undertaken at least 12 credit points in subjects taught by member units of the Faculty of Arts and may undertake no more than 60 credit points of 100-level subjects. Students should refer to the Award Rules for the Bachelor of Arts for further details. Major studies completed are noted on the student's testamur, awarded at Graduation.

Assessment

Assessment in this course varies between subjects and programs, but typically includes a combination of essays, tutorial/seminar presentations and in-class tests and/or exams. Some subjects may have an additional practical component. The assessment requirements of each subject are set out in the individual subject outlines which students receive in the first week of session.

Honours

A Community and Environment Honours year is available at our South Coast campuses. The end-on Honours year will be made up of coursework and a supervised thesis designed to prepare students for further research in future employment or future study.

To be eligible to study honours, students must have completed a major in Community and Environment with an average of 70 or above in at least three 300 level subjects.
The Faculty of Arts Honours Handbook can be accessed as a PDF document.

See also Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Major: Community & Environment

The BA in community and Environment is a coherent interdisciplinary degree based around a core and electives chosen from a range of subjects offered by the Faculties of Arts, Commerce, Informatics and Science. Some subjects that are also offered on the Wollongong campus will be available in a flexible delivery mode in Nowra, Batemans Bay, Bega and Moss Vale.

Students gain a broad general education with an emphasis on gaining transferable skills in written and oral communication, research and computer applications. While the traditional humanities and social sciences skills of reading to understand, writing essays and making convincing oral presentations are central, so are the related skills of report and submission writing, understanding the use of statistics in arguments and using the new technologies to find and present information.

Students are able to study progressions of subjects with a strong Australian content in the areas of environment, social and public policy, cultural heritage (including Aboriginal studies, history and literature), and communication studies (including film and television).

Major Study

The Community and Environment major is made up of 78 - 80 credit points, consisting of four to five core subjects* at 100-level (24 - 30 credit points), three to four core subjects* at 200-level (24 - 32 credit points) and 24 credit points at 300-level made up of the two core subjects and one elective from the 300-level Arts offerings. The remainder of the degree (64 - 66 credit points) consists of electives chosen from Arts or from the subjects offered from the other degrees offered at the South Coast and Southern Highlands campuses.
Note: Students may take the Philosophy subject Practical Reasoning as EITHER PHIL151 or PHIL214.

Honours

See Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Study Program

* Note: Students may take the core Philosophy subject Practical Reasoning\ at either 100 or 200 level.
** Electives may also be chosen from other Faculties' subjects offered at the South Coast and Moss Vale campuses, subject to meeting entry requirements.