Bachelor of Information and Communications Technology / Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Australian Studies (Dual Degree)

at Western Sydney University - Parramatta South Campus Australia

Tailor your studies to your specific goals by combining our Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree.

When you graduate after four years, you have two degrees, and the unique skills relevant to the contemporary employment environment.

The Arts component combines academic knowledge with practical real life training. It is designed to equip you with a broad range of skills and knowledge in research and critical enquiry, and is sufficiently flexible to cater to a range of career aspirations and personal interests.

In the Creative Industries component you will combine a core of entrepreneurship with major studies including culture and society, creative writing, design, enterprise innovation, journalism, literature, media arts, music performance and photo media.

Public Relations

The Public Relations major covers the skills and knowledge required in the profession of public relations, including event management, issues and crisis management and campaign development.

The major focuses on the role of the public relations practitioner or adviser and provides a theoretical framework of the industry. Students engage with both theory and practical projects and complete an internship placement.

Graduates can plan a career in media, public relations, journalism or advertising companies with skills adaptable to many environments.

This combined degree ensures that your future work appeals to the right target audience.

The Bachelor of Communication component covers all areas of creative communication, enabling you to understand how your field of study is connected to other disciplines.

The Creative Industries degree partners with creative industries to provide an interdisciplinary, experiential degree that combines a core of entrepreneurship with major studies including culture and society, creative writing, design, enterprise innovation, journalism, literature, media arts, music performance and photo media.

Digital Cultures

The Digital Cultures Major offers students the opportunity to learn about how cutting edge technology and digital practices are changing society.

By analysing new media, visual arts, and digital design and the effects that the use of these new technologies have on culture and society, students will gain the necessary skills to position themselves for careers in a wide variety of contexts that require understanding of technology or digital media and its impact.

Complementing these analytical skills, students will also gain practical skills in the creation of digital media and design.

This double degree is designed for students whose interests span the Arts and Business.

Study in the Bachelor of Arts component is designed to develop communication and personal skills, creativity and a capacity for independent thought, adaptability to new situations and problem-solving skills, attributes increasingly demanded by employers.

 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.

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

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.

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.

Philosophy

Philosophy has always asked the ‘big 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’.

Our philosophy major enables you to develop particular skills and attributes – such as clear thinking, capacities to assess arguments and values, and 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.

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.

Tailor your studies to your specific goals by combining our Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree.

When you graduate after four years, you have two degrees, and the unique skills relevant to the contemporary employment environment.

The Arts component combines academic knowledge with practical real life training. It is designed to equip you with a broad range of skills and knowledge in research and critical enquiry, and is sufficiently flexible to cater to a range of career aspirations and personal interests.

In the Creative Industries component you will combine a core of entrepreneurship with major studies including culture and society, creative writing, design, enterprise innovation, journalism, literature, media arts, music performance and photo media.

Journalism

The Journalism major combines an understanding of how the news media work with practical experience in broadcast, print and online journalism. Students develop journalism skills suitable for newspapers, magazines, internet, radio and TV, corporate and community media.

Western offers a specialist Computer Science degrees to equip you with the skills you need to be career-ready by specialising in different applications of computer science and computer systems.

Systems programming

This major aims to develop graduates with sound skills in the discipline of programming. The focus is on programming at the level of system calls to the underlying operating system and many of the units use the industry standard language for systems programming, namely C/C++, as the vehicle of instruction.

There is a strong emphasis on the development of highly efficient and reliable code that can provide support services for higher level application oriented programs, as well as the development of programs suitable for systems administration and management. Practical work utilises the Unix environment. This major is appropriate where a career in systems programming or systems administration is planned, or where the student wishes to develop advanced systems programming skills.

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.

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. 

This is a broadly based, inter-disciplinary four-year double degree offering flexibility and choice within a wide range of offerings in the social sciences, as well as studies of International Relations and Asian Studies and an Asian language.

This degree seeks to equip you with all the interdisciplinary and specialist skills and knowledge that you will need on entering the workforce or on proceeding to advanced study.

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.

Our Master of Science degree can be taken in a number of majors: Public Health Nutrition, Food Science, Greenhouse Horticulture or Agriculture. This program builds on your professional experience and/or prior degrees to develop advanced expertise and critical understanding in science and in these disciplines.

Food Science

The Master of Science majoring in Food Science is designed for graduates interested in furthering a career in food science and technology, working in a variety of settings, such as food manufacturing, research and development, regulatory affairs, technical and senior management. Graduates will develop knowledge and skills to meet future challenges to the food supply including sustainability, food safety, and health and nutrition, applicable to both Australian and global contexts. This major develops essential content knowledge, analytical skills and mastery of laboratory methods and quality assurance through an integrated set of subjects in food processing, quality assurance, food evaluation techniques and new product development. In particular, these subjects are all directed towards solving current and future challenges. Students will be prepared to become professional food scientists with the cognitive, technical and critical thinking skills to analyse issues and articulate appropriate solutions. Students will become familiar with the University’s food pilot plant and commercial kitchen and be able use these facilities to practise their skills and application of knowledge and skills. A capstone subject involving professional research project allows students to integrate their knowledge and skills developed from the whole program and build on research skills that are scaffolded through the curriculum.