Bachelor of Arts (General) in Music

at Algoma University - Sault Ste. Marie Campus Canada

Graduate Certificate in Human Resources and Business Management prepares students for a career as a Human Resources professional with basic business knowledge to enter or re-enter the workforce quickly. It is suitable for students who already hold another degree but want to acquire skills in business management and HR to complement their work experience and previous education.

We approach the study of law, legal decision-making, and justice from a variety of viewpoints. Our program incorporates diverse legal traditions into the curriculum and investigates law from historical, social and philosophical perspectives.

Our law and justice program is one of few such programs in Canada. Those that do exist often focus on criminology, rather than on legal traditions, institutions, and practices in their various current and historical forms and concepts. Criminology is the study of the anatomy of crime, specifically its causes, consequences, and costs. Law and justice, however, goes far beyond criminology, and provides students with a more well-rounded and holistic degree.

In our four-year program, students will acquire knowledge of the pattern of legal institutions required to regulate our political, social, and economic relations. Students will examine topics such as civil, criminal, family, corporate, constitutional, and contract law. They will study conventional, traditional, and alternative forms of justice and dispute resolution, as well as comparative, theoretical, and historical perspectives. The program helps students to understand law as a multidimensional and complex social phenomenon.

Within the program, students will develop a wide range of skills that apply beyond the study of law and justice. After completing a degree in law and justice, many of our students gain admission to law school and graduate programs, and also diploma programs at the college level. Students are also opened up to an array of career paths and opportunities, such as lawyer, paralegal, law enforcement, criminal investigator, forensic scientist technician, clerk, legal secretary, education (primary and secondary, colleges and universities), researcher, Indigenous researcher, immigration and border patrol services, civil servant, politics and policy, entrepreneur, and many more.

Algoma University’s four-year Bachelor of Social Work degree prepares students for generalist social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and societies.

Given Algoma University’s location in Northern Ontario in Sault Ste. Marie, and our special mission to cultivate cross-cultural learning between Indigenous communities and other communities, our social work program has a specific focus on multicultural social work in and with northern, rural, remote, Indigenous, and Franco-Ontarian communities. Graduates of our program will be prepared to practice anti-oppressive social work at the entry level with diverse populations in a Canadian context.

Students enrolled in our program will examine a variety of topics and will understand how northern communities significantly differ from urban communities in regards to health services, family and child welfare, and the social welfare system. Our graduates will understand crisis intervention, and how to deal with victims of abuse, including those who were affected by the residential school system in Canada. Unlike any other Ontario university, Algoma U is situated on the former site of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School, and offers special lectures and guest presentations from residential school Survivors. Many fellow classmates may in fact be Survivors. This provides our students with a unique learning experience, and the opportunity for students to better understand oppression, colonization, and self-determination.

Our social work program was developed in consultation with various local employers in Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins, who have cited a growing need for employees. For this reason, our program is designed to help fulfill the need for social workers in northern, rural, remote regions. A degree in social work is highly sought after in the work world. Plus, social workers are found in the broadest range of workplace settings: public agencies, private businesses, hospitals, clinics, schools, nursing homes, private practices, police departments, courts, etc. Social work graduates have an easier time finding employment after graduation than graduates in most other fields.

Our three-year accounting program is the perfect fit for students who have an aptitude for numbers, organizing, and analytical problem-solving skills.

In today’s global work world, accountants are in high demand. With the economy bouncing back from the recent economic downturn, Service Canada has forecasted accounting careers to be on the rise to mimic the economic upswing. Here at Algoma U, our students have a fundamental understanding of accounting concepts and principles needed to succeed in life and in their future career. Students will gain a strong understanding of managerial accounting, income taxation, finance, auditing, and analysis of general and management practices. Students will develop the intellectual ability to effectively organize, manage and lead teams, analyze and solve complex problems while leveraging new innovations and creative solutions, conduct themselves in an ethical and professional manner, and develop and execute business decisions using effective communication techniques.

Sociologists are interested in how humans form groups, whether for peace or war, cooperation or conflict, persuasion or domination, development or destruction. They investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts.

Algoma University’s four-year sociology program provides critical skills for understanding and interpreting the social world. The program offers courses which address a wide variety of areas, such as contemporary media depictions of gender and the body, debates in the environmental movement, health policy analysis, critical assessments of law and social justice, and Canadian policy in relation to multiculturalism and Indigenous rights. Students will use a variety of research methods to gain a vital understanding of social movements, race and diversity, and gender and sexuality, including surveys, interviews, observational studies, polls, personal letters, and focus groups.

Upon graduation, students in Algoma U’s sociology program will have strong written, oral presentation, and research skills – invaluable skills highly sought after in today’s competitive work world and in institutions of higher learning. These refined skills set Algoma U grads apart from the rest. For those who choose to enter the workforce upon graduation, career paths options include: education (primary and secondary, colleges and universities), researcher, affirmative action counsellor, health and safety educator, health promotion, human rights worker, journalist, non-profit housing worker, policy planner or policy analyst, parks and recreation planner, urban planner, and many more.

The Project Management: Resilience and Innovation program is a four-semester (20-month) Graduate Certificate program. Within this certificate, students must choose one of the following streams to specialize in:

• Anishinaabe Worldview
• Business and Economics
• English/French Bilingual Development (available in September intakes only)
• Human Services
• Information Technology
• Social and Cultural Innovation

Algoma University’s four-year Bachelor of Arts in Community, Economic, and Social Development (CESD) is the only undergraduate program of its kind in Canada!

Community, economic, and social development provides students with the tools and knowledge to make meaningful change within their community and the world around them. This distinctive interdisciplinary program integrates several disciplines including CESD, social work, sociology, political science, geography, economics, and business administration. Due to the broad-based structure of the program, students will develop a holistic perspective of the world around them and develop the knowledge and understanding to work to advocate for positive change, fight for economic and social equality, and defend human rights, with a specific focus on smaller urban, rural, northern, and Indigenous communities. Students can also minor in environmental sustainability and social justice and globalization.

In students’ third-year of study, they will complete a 150-hour work placement, while in their fourth-year, they will be required to complete a 300-hour placement and a major paper or project. Students have been placed in organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Children’s Aid Society, Batchewana First Nation, Garden River First Nation, NORDIK Institute, United Way, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and more. These placements allow students to apply concepts, theories, and methods from their coursework in the community, advocate for change, and implement new analytical strategies, making the degree action-packed and very hands-on.

Graduates will be eligible for certification by the Economic Developers’ Association of Canada (EDAC) and the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Offices (CANDO). Graduates from the CESD program have gone on to work in the local, provincial, and federal government, not-for-profit and cooperative agencies, youth development agencies, rural and urban economic development associations, have worked as researchers, advocates, and more graduates have also been accepted into prestigious graduate programs in geography, education, sociology, sustainable development, and community economic development.

Algoma University’s four-year Bachelor of Arts in Community, Economic, and Social Development (CESD) is the only undergraduate program of its kind in Canada!

Community, economic, and social development provides students with the tools and knowledge to make meaningful change within their community and the world around them. This distinctive interdisciplinary program integrates several disciplines including CESD, social work, sociology, political science, geography, economics, and business administration. Due to the broad-based structure of the program, students will develop a holistic perspective of the world around them and develop the knowledge and understanding to work to advocate for positive change, fight for economic and social equality, and defend human rights, with a specific focus on smaller urban, rural, northern, and Indigenous communities. Students can also minor in environmental sustainability and social justice and globalization.

In students’ third-year of study, they will complete a 150-hour work placement, while in their fourth-year, they will be required to complete a 300-hour placement and a major paper or project. Students have been placed in organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Children’s Aid Society, Batchewana First Nation, Garden River First Nation, NORDIK Institute, United Way, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and more. These placements allow students to apply concepts, theories, and methods from their coursework in the community, advocate for change, and implement new analytical strategies, making the degree action-packed and very hands-on.

Graduates will be eligible for certification by the Economic Developers’ Association of Canada (EDAC) and the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Offices (CANDO). Graduates from the CESD program have gone on to work in the local, provincial, and federal government, not-for-profit and cooperative agencies, youth development agencies, rural and urban economic development associations, have worked as researchers, advocates, and more graduates have also been accepted into prestigious graduate programs in geography, education, sociology, sustainable development, and community economic development.

This program is ideal for students interested in geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, climate change, environmental sustainability, research, and urban and regional development.

Our program is divided into four major thematic areas: physical geography, human geography, human-environmental geography, and geomatics. Students can study up to two of these areas to further enhance the quality of their degree:

• Physical geography explores the ever-changing surface of the earth and the physical processes that cause these changes. Students will develop the ability to identify critical processes in landscape form and structure, earth-building and the formation of rocks, weathering and mass movement, coastal/shoreline environments, and much more.
• Human geography examines the relationship people have with the earth and how people are distributed on the earth. It examines how we interact with each other, why we interact this way, and how we can improve our lives with this understanding knowledge. Students will explore how and why the first known cities formed; how culture is spread and stagnated by barriers; and how different regions in the world function culturally, socially, environmentally, and economically.
• Human-environmental geography focus on the impact humans have on our environment through activities like urban sprawl and globalization, and how we can work to develop more sustainable practices. Students will develop an understanding of global and environmental change, impact assessments, and natural resource management. Students will study the Great Lakes and their cultural, environmental, and economic importance to humans.
• Geomatics is the discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering geographic information, or spatially referenced information. In our program, students will be introduced to the world of cartography, GIS, remote sensing of the environment, and air photo interpretation.

Political science is the study and analysis of possibilities for states and their citizens; the possibility of peace in a war ravaged country; the possibility of democracy in an authoritarian state; the possibility of economic equity in a capitalist system; and the possibility of harmony in a system of sovereign states.

The study of politics has always been at the centre of an education geared toward sustaining and improving community life. The ancient Chinese, Greeks, and Romans regarded politics as one of the highest forms of human expression. Indigenous peoples all over the world have practiced unique and effective forms of politics for millennia. Whether you know it or not, we all participate in politics.

Algoma U’s four-year Bachelor of Arts in Political Science degree focuses on three areas of study: Canadian politics, public policy and government; comparative politics and international relations; and political theory, philosophy, and economy.

Our program works to incorporate Indigenous content, ideas, and methodology in its approach. It will help students to understand and identify important institutions, forces, and ideas that shape society, and permit change to occur or not occur. It will teach students how to systematically, rigorously, and analytically evaluate competing explanations of the same event or phenomenon, and gain an understanding of who or what exerts power.

Within the program, students will develop a wide range of skills that are in high demand in the public and private workforce. Some of the career paths our graduates have chosen include education, research, financial/economic analyst, foreign services, legislative analyst, diplomat, immigration and border services, museum and/or curatorial work, Indigenous research, civil service, lawyer, politics and policy, public relations, entrepreneur, journalist and many more.