Bachelor of Social Science in Geography and Urban Studies

at Western Sydney University - Liverpool City Campus Australia

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Disability studies

This major is designed to meet the increasing demand for specialist expertise in disability care, rights and services. Recent changes in global policy and social service frameworks have generated new labour markets in disability support, and this major meets the need for professionals with in-depth knowledge of contemporary disability issues.

Incorporating units from Social Sciences and Health Sciences, this major explores contemporary frameworks for disability studies. Students will explore inclusive practices and evaluate the impact of social policy on the rights of persons with disabilities.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Heritage Tourism

In a highly mobile world (migration, tourism, media and communications, travel and transport) and in contemporary life where the preservation of historical and natural environments present as one of the major challenges facing all societies, heritage has become a touchstone for social and cultural identity, our understanding of modernity, peace and development, our senses of citizenship, custodianship and community. At the same time heritage places have become significant tourist destinations and so in a world of flows and networks, the heritage-tourism relationship is a critical one. In the 21st century it is impossible to disentangle the two.

This major introduces contemporary heritage issues and provides an in-depth understanding of tourism as a social phenomenon. It enables a critical examination of the relationship between heritage and tourism in number of settings within Australia (including Indigenous Australia) and internationally.

Graduates with a heritage and tourism major can contemplate careers within a diverse range of government, non-government organization and businesses that require understanding, insight and skills related to heritage and tourism.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

 Peace and Development Studies

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.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Sociology

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.

A Bachelor of Social Science (BSS) with a major in Sociology will prepare students for both employment and a research higher degree.

As the only Policing degree in metropolitan Sydney, we prepare you for an unlimited future in the Force.

This degree will give you the skills you need to enter into careers in policing, criminal and community justice organisations, corrective services, border protection, intelligence, security and fraud management, forensics, computer forensics, and more.

When you choose the Bachelor of Policing at Western, you gain access to a state-of-the-art research facility, as well as the opportunity to practice realistic crime scene investigation and collect evidence in the real world.

Our Policing degree gives you an advanced knowledge of modern policing theory and practice, including a broad understanding of the role of police in society. You also develop an appreciation of the diverse nature of Australian culture, enhance your analytical and problem-solving skills, and develop a client-focused approach to serving the community.

Designed in collaboration with NSW Police Force, this program partially fulfils the academic requirements to join their ranks. This means you gain a genuine competitive advantage if you decide you want to join the Force.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Child and Community

The Child and Community major provides a comprehensive introduction to a range of social sciences related areas and a strong grounding in contemporary issues facing children and their families from a critical perspective.

This major provides a good foundation for people interested in a career in the human services with a particular interest in children.

Become a skilled social worker with the ability to nurture people’s self-reliance and problem-solving abilities. If you have always cared about others, this degree gives you an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of individuals, families, groups and communities.

Through a mix of world-class research and theory, Western's Bachelor of Social Work gives you the valuable skills and knowledge you need to help people deal with personal and social problems, either directly or by planning and carrying out programs that will benefit groups or communities. It prepares you to enter the workforce in a range of sectors, including private or government agencies, welfare support organisations, community groups or in health. 

Become a skilled social worker with the ability to nurture people’s self-reliance and problem-solving abilities. If you have always cared about others, this degree gives you an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of individuals, families, groups and communities.

Through a mix of world-class research and theory, Western's Bachelor of Social Work gives you the valuable skills and knowledge you need to help people deal with personal and social problems, either directly or by planning and carrying out programs that will benefit groups or communities. It prepares you to enter the workforce in a range of sectors, including private or government agencies, welfare support organisations, community groups or in health.

In addition to social research and theory, this program emphasises practical skills to make you job-ready by undertaking more than 1,000 hours of supervised field work. As a result, you will graduate with confidence in your abilities, and highly sought-after workplace skills as a professional social worker.

The Bachelor of Criminal and Community Justice degree is designed for current employees within Corrective Services and other similar professions, as well as those external to the industry who wish to pursue a career in corrections, probation and/or parole (Community Corrections).

The degree has been designed in collaboration with Brush Farm, the training academy of Corrective Services NSW.

The degree draws upon disciplinary areas such as Criminal Justice, Criminology, Psychology, Social Work and Welfare in order to provide a theoretical framework for those who work with offenders.

This degree is a specialised degree which targets a range of central themes and issues that are paramount for those who work with victims and also offenders, both in terms of their treatment and management. As well as providing a theoretical framework, the program equips our students with the knowledge and skills to develop and evaluate practice with a view to enhancing work with offenders and victims.

The Bachelor of Criminal and Community Justice can be described as an ‘applied degree’ insofar as the teaching within the program will link theory to practice. It is important to note that this degree does not guarantee direct employment into Corrective Services or related fields.

Our academics who teach in the program have had first-hand experience working directly with offenders and victims in a variety of settings including prisons, courts and a community setting. This is reflected in some of the specialised subjects, including Assessment and Treatment of Offenders and Managing Offenders in the Community.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Anthropology

Social Anthropology is the study of humans and the cultures they create. The major in Anthropology within the Bachelor of Social Science offers students the opportunity to examine social patterns and practices across cultures, to discover similarities and differences between cultures, and to understand the processes by which humans organise and create meaning.

Areas of focus include the development of anthropology as a discipline; globalisation and culture; power and politics; gender and sexuality; identity and belonging; ethnography and ethnographic methods; indigenous peoples and nation states. Specific attention is given to cultures of Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and to cross cultural interactions, at both global and local levels.

The major seeks to equip students with multi-cultural knowledge as well as to provide a thorough grounding in research methods and ethics with utility in a variety of professional and academic contexts.