Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) with Concentration in Management (Co-op)

at Carleton University Canada

Acquire the knowledge necessary for an engagement with the critical dimensions of global politics. This specialization takes a problem-focused and applied approach to the study of global political issues such as economic relations and the gap between rich and poor, democracy and its economic and political benefits, human rights and the different emphasis placed upon rights by different societies, war and peace, ethnic conflicts around the world, and the politics of the environment. You will gain the skills and experience necessary to better understand and engage in the myriad of arenas in which global politics takes place, including the United Nations, development banks, civil society organizations, refugee organizations, international NGOs and others.

Biology in the 21st century is among the most diverse and exciting of the sciences. Many of the challenges we face as a society, from environmental decline to the demand for new health therapies, involve biological solutions. As a Carleton Biology student in the BA program, you will gain broad experience through core science courses and courses in the arts and social sciences that suit your individual interests and needs.

The influence of public policy is pervasive in our society. It affects the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink. It affects prosperity and the extent of poverty, as well as our access to education and medical care. It shapes the impact and pace of technological change. It determines the duties and powers of our officials at home and overseas. It influences the pace of technological change, the reach and practical meaning of our rights, and the extent of poverty. As a student in the Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management program (BPAPM), you will examine a wide variety of issues facing society today, as well as institutional challenges, and develop the necessary skills and knowledge to address them.

The BPAPM does this through a curriculum that combines interdisciplinary study of civic institutions and processes with rigorous study of public policy. A selection of courses in political science, economics, law, communications, and history is combined with exclusive courses in public policy. Together, these courses will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of what government, civil and business organizations do, why they do it, and how they might do it better.

The BPAPM program is located in the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs, which provides an academic home for our students who come from across Canada and abroad. The university college is ancient in conception, characteristic of universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, and following this model our students belong to a select scholarly community. They have exclusive and direct access to academic advising, dedicated student meeting space and an electronic resource centre.

Engineering Physics is a challenging and elite program for those students who want to combine the strengths of physics and engineering. You will obtain an unusually broad and strong foundation in material science, applied physics, electronics and nanotechnology, and learn to apply it in the development of new technologies which include, but are not limited to, nanotechnology, semiconductor devices, optical systems, telecommunications and related computer hardware. In your senior year, you may specialize in many other areas of interest.

Are you interested in global environmental issues like climate change? This specialization looks at global processes and their impact on the environment, focusing attention on the emergence of the environment as a key theme of globalization. You will have the opportunity to develop an integrated understanding of global environmental issues, processes, patterns and solutions, as well as a skill set for conducting a critical analysis of current approaches to these issues and methods to implement and effect change. You will examine global biophysical systems and human-environment interactions, and you can also choose areas of interest within the specialization (such as human geography, urban networks, global environmental politics, sustainability or environmental change).

Biology
Biology in the 21st century is among the most diverse and exciting of the sciences. Many of the challenges we face as a society, from climate change to the development of novel health therapies, involve biological solutions. As a Carleton Biology student, you will gain broad experience through core science courses and options that suit your individual interests and needs.

Physics
Physics is the study of the most basic natural phenomena—from the smallest particles to the largest structures of the universe, from the beginning to the end. Physics is also the scaffolding behind the technology found in numerous current advances such as in smart phones, self-driving cars and radiation treatment of cancer. Physicists are keen to understand the nature of the world around them, as well as to control it for the betterment of humanity. They use their creativity to solve challenging problems, whether they are creating very powerful lasers for eye surgery, colliding particles at very-high energy, or descending deep down into underground mines to investigate the most basic building blocks of matter. Physicists look for and examine patterns in nature in order to formulate natural laws. They push scientific boundaries by exploring unknown territory through theory and experimentation, often thinking about and describing our physical world in ways that we cannot yet observe in nature.

This disciplinary specialization provides a good general understanding of the economic forces invoked by government intervention and helps students gain familiarity with current best evidence on the magnitude of these forces. The program’s relatively non-technical approach will give students with diverse backgrounds the opportunity to learn about issues related to economic globalization, international and public-sector economics, and the ways in which associated challenges might be resolved for the improvement of people’s well-being. This specialization will be of particular interest to students who aspire to work in economic policy institutions such as central banks, government finance ministries, trade policy institutions, financial regulatory agencies, macroeconomic think tanks, and international lending institutions.

The BA Geography program at Carleton focuses on human and environmental geography, exploring and analyzing a wide range of topics such as local food systems, urban poverty, cultural landscapes, adaptation to climate change and natural resource management. Students in the BA Geography (Honours) program may take a concentration in Physical Geography or Urban Geography. Our professors have extensive expertise in social, political and cultural geography; resource management and environmental assessment; and the study of physical processes of the Earth’s vegetation, climate, water and soil systems. Field courses, workplace opportunities (1 day a week practicum; full term co-op), and training in tools like geographic information systems, remote sensing and cartography also provide an opportunity to gain practical experience while you study. A Bachelor of Science in Physical Geography is also available.

Media and communication technologies are engines of globalization, and shape the rapidly changing social, political, economic and cultural environments in which we live. Global media and communication affect how we access, share and exchange information, how we work, and how we see the world and our places in it. They transform relations between states and blur the boundaries (real and imagined) separating people and communities. In this specialization you will explore global media and communication in historical and contemporary contexts, drawing on a range of perspectives that will provide the knowledge and skills necessary for working in global and international settings as communicators, researchers, analysts or advocates.

How are new technologies changing the ways we interact with each other and live our lives? Why are many jobs becoming increasingly short term and how is this situation affecting people’s families, communities, and self-identities? Why do social problems like poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, and ageism persist in the modern world? What can we do to address these problems? What is it like to live with discrimination when many of the doors to social participation are closed to you? How do we define what is ‘normal’ and what happens to those who don’t fit within these definitions?

Sociology asks these and other questions in order to understand the powerful forces that shape the world and societies in which we live today. It is also the study of our personal and lived experiences of those worlds and societies, and how our self-identities, future opportunities and ways of life are shaped accordingly. If you are interested in these kinds of questions, sociology is a good fit for you.