Bachelor of Social Science in Geography and Urban Studies / Bachelor of Laws

at Western Sydney University - Parramatta South Campus Australia

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.

International Studies

This major has been designed to meet the needs of Australian government, business and society to engage the states and peoples of Asia at all levels in pursuit of national interests and as part of the globalisation process.

It provides students with the opportunity to study contemporary Asia, as well as the rich and diverse histories, politics, cultures and languages of Asian countries and the international issues affecting Australia’s interests and role in the region and in the world at large.

The major area also includes a range of units concerned with the United States and Europe as well as with Asia itself, and units in international relations covering other parts of the world. 

This double degree program will allow you to combine your interest and expertise in science with a sophisticated understanding of international issues and systems. This will equip you to work in globalised science-based professions and industries.

You can design your own academic program within the Bachelor of Science program structure, which must include a Science major. This can be combined with an International Studies major in International Relations and Asian Studies.

The Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of International Studies equips you to work in globalised science-based professions and industries. Our graduates have a solid grounding in a core science disciplines such as Biological Science, Chemistry or Mathematics.

Sustainable Environmental Futures

Managing our environment sustainably requires professionals who are trained in new technologies across multiple disciplines, including biological and physical sciences, risk assessment, policy and management. Understanding how life interacts with water, soil and the atmosphere empowers us to develop sustainable management solutions for our most pressing environmental challenges. You will learn how to apply fundamental scientific knowledge to evaluate and mitigate the impacts of human activities on natural and managed ecosystems, including the built environment. You will have access to world class ecological and environmental research facilities, and will engage in hands-on, field-based learning, taught by a team at the cutting edge of research in this field.

Our fully accredited Bachelor of Creative Industries is unique in NSW. It gives you the opportunity to combine your studies in Arts, Communication, Design and Music with programs in Business and Law.

Media Arts Production

The major in Media Arts Production is designed to provide students with production skills, complete with practical hands-on experience together with a theoretical foundation in the moving, visual media. From 2017 this specialisation is available on Parramatta campus only.

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.

English

The English major invites students to explore contemporary approaches to language, literary study 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 publish their work. Career prospects include publishing, editing, teaching, writing and advertising.

This double degree program is designed in recognition of the globalising nature of the information technology industry.

In the IT area, the program allows students to develop skills in application development, program design, systems analysis and design, networks, web-design, and the implementation of technology.

Innovation and Change

This major explores the links between leadership and entrepreneurship in the context of dynamic domestic and global environments. The major introduces the concepts of change and innovation as they relate to organisational transformation of businesses. You will deal with conflicting viewpoints to understand the complexity of the organisational relationships involved in change and innovation.

To prepare you for management roles, the major examines the challenges associated with developing sustainable, innovative and creative organisations, and includes assessments that facilitate engagement with elements of organisational change and innovation.

This combined degree offers you a unique opportunity to gain the creative and business skills necessary to prosper in the contemporary innovation landscape.

Underpinned by a foundation of graphic design, the Bachelor of Design gives you fundamental skills and knowledge in the exciting and constantly changing area of visual communication.

The Creative Industries component 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.

The program is designed for those who wish to pursue a creative practice while gaining the business and legal acumen to become a successful part of the creative economy on their own terms.

English

The English major invites students to explore contemporary approaches to language, literary study 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 publish their work. Career prospects include publishing, editing, teaching, writing and advertising.

This double degree program is designed in recognition of the globalising nature of the information technology industry.

In the IT area, the program allows students to develop skills in application development, program design, systems analysis and design, networks, web-design, and the implementation of technology.

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.

Today, to implement technology, practising professionals need to not only have knowledge and skills in information and communications technology, but they also need to understand the context in which computer technology can best be selected, applied and implemented. You will work with organisations to design, develop, deploy and manage information systems through the application of computing technology.

This program will help you carry out a real-life project where you will need to demonstrate you can design and develop an information system that solves a community-based problem.

This degree is exclusively for high-achieving students, and will continually challenge you to do even better and build on your academic success. Students in the Advanced degree program are automatically enrolled in The Academy Opens in new window, which offers interdisciplinary leadership programs, professional development and local and international internship and engagement opportunities for students.

Mobile Computing

This major covers theories and technologies used for the development of distributed applications for hand-held mobile devices. Students completing this major will understand the advanced principles related to mobile hardware devices, data storage and transmission, and communication networks. In addition they will identify, analyse, and formulate solutions to real-world problems in the mobile domain. In devising these solutions students will also consider principles associated with user interface design, professional and ethical issues, in particular those relating to security and privacy of user data and user behaviour related to mobile devices and its applications.

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 Information Systems.

This major covers theories and technologies of big data with applications to information systems. Students completing this major will possess and apply the technical skills for managing large volumes and varieties of data in the information systems context.

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.

Chinese

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, Chinese, Indonesian or Japanese 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.

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.

Heritage and 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. 

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.