Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice

at Western Sydney University - Bankstown Campus Australia

The Bachelor of Arts (Dean’s Scholars) degree is designed to develop your communication and personal skills, creativity, capacity for independent thought, adaptability to new situations, and problem-solving abilities.

English

The English major invites students to explore contemporary approaches to language, literary studies and writing, including literary criticism and theory, linguistic analysis, genre and textual study, and creative writing. The English major focuses on the imaginative workings of language, and students can study a wide selection of modern and classic literature, as well as the relationships between written texts and other media such as film and information technology.

Students also have the opportunity to produce their own creative writing and to edit and learn how to publish their work. Career prospects include publishing, editing, teaching, writing and advertising.

Students must maintain a grade point average of 5 or above to remain in the program. Those who do not maintain this average will be transferred to the Bachelor of Arts.

Understand how to think creatively, apply innovative solutions to everyday problems and develop trusting, long-lasting business relationships.

Taxation

The specialised subjects in this major analyse core and contemporary issues in taxation using case studies and discussion.

The major is designed to meet the educational requirements for graduates to apply for registration as tax agents (subject to relevant work experience), provided students choose subjects 200012 Property Law as an elective.

Since the revival of humanist thought in the Renaissance, universities have placed studies in history and political thought at the centre of exploring what it is to be human.

At the heart of the History and Political Thought major are four compulsory units which introduce the student to the modern (since 1500) history of humanity. Although Europe is very prominent in the Major, the student will be invited to compare its history to the histories of Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The Major culminates in a capstone unit in students’ final semester discussing historical theories and methods. A wide range of elective units covers European, American, Australian and Asian history and political thought and includes thematic units which range widely over time and place.

Language majors will enable you to develop an appropriate level of proficiency in a second language, which may be used for professional purposes such as teaching, interpreting and translation, business or international relations.

If you are undertaking a language major in Arabic, you will be able to use the language in question according to its grammatical and pragmatic principles, communicate with native speakers appropriately in the spoken as well as the written mode, and demonstrate an understanding of the cultures and societies associated with the language.

Many future challenges exist at the nexus of environment, infrastructure and technology. Solutions to these will demand innovative engineering combined with applied science and business acumen. Engineers with a head for business will find many opportunities to leverage their highly developed analytical skills towards a host of technical and commercial challenges.

At Western Sydney University, we prepare our students to take on big challenges and succeed. The combined Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) / Bachelor of Business degree covers all major engineering and business domains. You can also experience many facets of engineering before deciding upon your major at the end of your first year.

Human Resource Management

The Human Resource Management Major is designed for people who seek careers in human resource management and industrial relations. Graduates’ careers focus on enhancing the value of human and social capital through supporting employee engagement for many different kinds of organisations, market-oriented and community-oriented organisations and many kinds of people. The teaching philosophy is based on knowledge in action, a fusion of the Australia Human Resource Institute’s capabilities for HR professionals and the Western Sydney University Graduate Attributes designed to secure success. An aim of the program is to instil those values and attitudes that can support leaders in judgements about balancing the pursuit of organisational objectives with creating opportunities for developing people’s capacities and careers. The perspectives are local and international, with an emphasis on the value of cultural and demographic diversity. Graduates have knowledge of how leadership and management of people can support organisational objectives and create organisational opportunities. This capacity comes from grounding in human resource management and industrial relations practice using contemporary law and research in applied projects. Students combine this with an education in the pressures organisations experience in inter-disciplinary subjects focused on money, markets and management. That is, graduates develop commercial acumen and appreciate the competing interests around work, aware of trends locally and internationally. Throughout the program, students are challenged to develop and demonstrate communication, cultural, and analytic skills required to be innovative and responsible team-members and leaders.

Language is fundamental to the human experience. Through study of how language works, students make contact with fundamental philosophical, socio-cultural, and psychological questions about what it means to be human.

Linguistics prepares students with a foundation for many careers including primary and secondary teaching, policy analysis, communication, and social services in culturally diverse communities.

Linguistics students also gain the analytical tools of empirical science including the ability to break complex problems into components with tractable solutions and to evaluate theories on the basis of empirical facts. These skills prepare students for success in post-graduate studies and careers in research, analytics, business and law.

The Economics major provides a broad pluralist perspective on fundamental aspects of relationships between individuals, firms, institutions and countries. Students will learn how economies function and how public policy and the way organisations behave affect diverse social, economic and environmental problems. Students are introduced to a wide array of competing economic theories, so that they are critically informed about the ways in which they can transform the world. A major in Economics prepares students to be active participants in addressing the wide range of problems faced by governments, social organisations and the business community in the domestic and international economies. Students who study economics can expect to develop their analytical and problem solving skills and to be intellectually challenged, whether they view the discipline as providing specific vocational skills or as an area of academic and intellectual interest to them. An Economics major is very highly regarded in the business world and opens up a very large range of career prospects in general business, finance and the public sector.

The Peace and Development Studies major is concerned with methods for promoting peace, human rights and sustainability. It involves a critical analysis of inequalities of power and opportunity that lead to international and local conflict, social dislocation and environmental degradation. Students will examine the structural causes of racist and gendered violence, environmental crises, forced migration, poverty, resource conflict, and inter-generational inequity.

The inter-related network of solutions includes empowerment and self-determination, sustainable living, constructive development, peacemaking and peace building.

These require understanding of the theories and method for identifying, measuring and resolving conflict and environmental degradation. The assumptions and failings of traditional development practice are critically assessed. Students will engage social theory within an interdisciplinary and applied framework, at local, national and international levels.

The major is comprised of three fields: 1) structural inequality, social justice & human rights; 2) development and sustainability; 3) peace and humanitarian responses/actions.

The major in Sociology provides students with a thorough training in the methods, theories and select leading areas of contemporary sociology.

As well as units in which methods and theories are taught, through the social science core, students enrolled in the Sociology major will have opportunities to study a number of particular themes from a sociological perspective, including inequalities, deviance, identities, gender, religion, medicine and health care, ethnicity and migration, and the family, among other possibilities.

The Creative Writing major provides students the opportunity to produce their own creative writing and to edit and publish their work.

Students study with professional authors, editors and publishers from the Writing and Society Research Centre and staff from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts.

In addition, students have the opportunity to study contemporary approaches to language and literary studies, including literary criticism and theory, linguistic analysis, genre and textual study, and to read and examine a wide selection of modern and classic literatures.