Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical /Bachelor of Business (Dual Degree)

at Western Sydney University - Bankstown Campus Australia

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.

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.

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.

Cultural and Social Analysis

Cultural and Social Analysis is an interdisciplinary major, developing the knowledge, research skills and analytical capacities relevant to understanding and interpreting landscapes of cultural diversity and social difference in our contemporary world.

This major focuses on both the broad contours, as well as the specific microsocial environments. This major provides grounding in contemporary debates and methodologies in cultural studies and social theory, and draws on various disciplines, including history, sociology, film studies, and the visual arts.

Topics include popular culture, everyday urban life, cultural and social impacts of scientific theories and new technologies, multiculturalism, and contemporary spirituality.

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.

This is a double degree program that targets the wide application of information technology in Business providing a well rounded education in two disciplines.

Marketing

Marketing focuses on the exchange process built around understanding and satisfying the needs and wants of customers. Often this is associated as doing business within a highly competitive business environment, yet marketing strategy is also important for government and not-for-profit organisations.

This major introduces students to the core concepts of marketing theory, consumer behaviour, marketing communications, brand management, and marketing strategy.

Graduates are equipped with the skills for marketing careers in a range of diverse industries across an international platform.

This double degree program is designed for students whose interests span the Arts and Social Sciences.

It will give you the skills and versatility to work across a range of academic and professional disciplines, including the opportunity to develop global perspectives and communication skills.

You need to include a Social Science Major, so you can design your own academic program within the Bachelor of Social Science program structure.

Indigenous Australian Studies

What does it mean to live in Indigenous Australia? The Indigenous Australian Studies major offers you the exciting opportunity to acquire key cultural competencies that will enable you to understand and work more effectively with Indigenous Australians in professions such as the arts, communications, media, education, government and non-government, policy, health, sciences, and community services.

The Indigenous Australian Studies major addresses the cultural, historical, social and economic issues affecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and relationships.

This combined degree is designed for students who want to combine their interest and expertise in International Relations and Asian Studies with a good understanding of basic business issues, complemented by a high level of knowledge relevant to a specific business discipline.

Graduates will have a solid grounding in the relationships of societies, cultures, languages and systems of government within the international system.

Students will develop their capacity to appreciate the historical development of relations among nation states, and analyse contemporary political, economic, social and cultural issues such as globalisation, transnationalism and migration.

Students complete a major in International Relations and Asian Studies, a minor in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish or Japanese languages, and a major in Marketing. When combined with a high level of knowledge from the specific business majors, you will be ready for the workplace of the future.

 International Business

The global economy is becoming increasingly important for organisations seeking out new opportunities to expand their customer base and develop partnerships.

Managers who are well versed in the needs of doing business internationally and who can exploit these opportunities will therefore play an integral role in any such corporation.

Building on a solid foundation in domestic business education, including global sustainability, international business strategy, managing in a global environment, and international marketing, this major equips graduates with the detailed knowledge of the international dimension of business and the necessary understanding of the workings of that market system.

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.

Arabic

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.

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.

Philosophy has always asked the 'big questions' about our lives. These are questions, for example, about the limits of our knowledge, the best way that humans can live together, how we understand the world around us, and what is the good life.

A philosophy major will enable students to develop particular skills and attributes - such as clear thinking, capacities to assess arguments and values, sound understanding of important philosophical views that have always been essential to university scholarship, and which continue to be valuable for graduates in both public and private life.

This double degree program is designed for students whose interests span the Arts and Social Sciences.

It will give you the skills and versatility to work across a range of academic and professional disciplines, including the opportunity to develop global perspectives and communication skills.

You need to include a Social Science Major, so you can design your own academic program within the Bachelor of Social Science program structure.

History and Political Thought

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 history of humanity (since 1500). Although Europe is very prominent in the major, you 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.