Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies

at University of Ottawa Canada

Students will acquire knowledge and have opportunities to apply what they learn in the various capacities of a kinesiologist. Kinesiology involves the application of principles from biomechanics, physiology, and motor behaviour to improve peoples’ functional movement, motor performance, and to manage and prevent injury and disease. Students will be offered courses oriented towards the core competencies required by the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario to pursue a professional career as a Registered Kinesiologist (R Kin). Students will gain theoretical and practical training, and will acquire skills to critically examine literature in the biophysical sciences of human movement.

Students will acquire knowledge, competencies and techniques for assessing and promoting performance and functional capacity, and for preventing and managing injury and chronic disease. They will obtain practical skills in exercise prescription to enhance performance and health, and for the treatment of individuals with compromised function. Students will have opportunities to gain training in how to use exercise in the management of injury, chronic disease, and in rehabilitation. They will have opportunities to gain training in ergonomics to critically assess and design equipment and workplaces to optimize performance and minimize musculoskeletal injury risk. They will gain applied counselling skills in principles of behaviour change to help individuals become more physically active and to help them enhance their health and well-being. Students will acquire knowledge in class settings and in laboratory-based and field practicum. In these rich practical experiences, they will learn to interact with different populations, from either different age groups (preschoolers, youth, young adults, the aged) or from groups of varying functional levels (e.g., athletes, sedentary people, persons with chronic disease, people in rehabilitation). Our students will gain practical experiences that better prepare them to pursue a career as a kinesiologist.

Our graduates are eligible to challenge the professional licensing examination for the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario, the external regulatory body for the profession of kinesiology and the R Kin designation. Applied Studies in Kinesiology enable graduates to pursue various career-paths in different occupational roles. For example, our graduates can become strength and conditioning coaches in high-performance training facilities and professional sport organizations. They can work among allied health professionals in community health centres and outpatient hospital programs, prescribing exercise treatments to help people manage chronic conditions. Our graduates can also find roles in rehabilitation clinics prescribing exercise and mobility protocol to facilitate injured persons’ return to work. They can work for occupational health and safety companies, conducting ergonomic assessments and re-designing spaces to enhance how people move in the workplace. They can become physical activity counsellors in family health teams or community health centres. Our graduates can initiate start-up enterprises in private kinesiology services. They can also work toward employment as certified ergonomists and pursue post-graduate certification in advanced ergonomics studies. Many of our graduates receive certification as Certified Exercise Physiologists from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP-CEP) and others pursue accredited membership with La Fédération des Kinésiologues du Québec. Our graduates can also pursue advanced degrees in allied health and rehabilitation fields (e.g., physiotherapy, occupational therapy).

The Honours Bachelor in Health Sciences program is defined by its integrative approach for studying health. Students are provided with a foundational biosciences core, research analytical skills training in a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies within a broader interdisciplinary context of the social and environmental determinants of health. This unique academic approach allows students to discover innovative ways to examine, measure and unravel complex health problems at all life stages, in Canada and around the world.

Future health professionals will be challenged to understand biological, environmental and social factors, both in isolation and as interactive health determinants.The curriculum contains a research methodologies core to provide students with applied, quantitative and qualitative transferrable skills for post-graduate training or employment. Three thematic programming options enable students to focus their academic trajectory in Integrative Health Biosciences, Technologies and Innovation in Healthcare or Population and Public Health, gaining theoretical and applied knowledge and skills in these domains. This program also includes select opportunities to conduct a research thesis project and participate in interdisciplinary health sciences fieldwork.

Graduates will be well-prepared to undertake healthrelated MSc programs or pursue careers in public or private health agencies, non-governmental health organizations or in community health programs. Students are provided with the necessary foundation for further studies in medicine, rehabilitation studies, dentistry or pharmacy. Our interdisciplinary focus enhances the quality and maturity of future clinicians and health professionals.

Criminology involves the scientific analysis of crime, of the criminalization process, and of social control. Criminology is also an applied discipline in which students explore various forms of intervention to help resolve problems and conflicts. It focuses on five broad phenomena: the nature and dynamics of behaviour that contravenes social norms; the social construction of norms and of the notion of crime; the criminalization of specific behaviours; individuals and groups in social relations; the goals and workings of the criminal justice system; and contemporary forms of intervention.

Our marketing program is designed to teach how and why people and organizations purchase and consume goods and services. Marketing is a system of interacting business and organizational activities designed to plan, develop, price, promote and distribute products and services. The study of marketing concepts has expanded to include an understanding of the environment in which buyers and sellers operate. Recent applications of marketing to formerly unrelated activities, such as political elections and promoting government programs and agencies, are introduced in more advanced courses for analysis and discussion. As a result of the increased breadth of marketing and the complexity and size of the decisions to be made, marketing requires a good knowledge of both the quantitative and the qualitative concepts, models, theories and techniques of the other areas taught at the Telfer School of Management.

Electrical engineering is at the heart of today's exciting advances in technology. With five technical specializations—communications, systems, electronics, microwave and photonic, and power and sustainable energy—our curriculum will enable you to influence how the world communities communicate, generate sustainable energy and heal diseases. As an electrical engineer, you will work with other engineers or scientists on emerging technologies. 

The option of Engineering Management will prepare you with necessary skills to pursue entrepreneurial activities and start your own technology-related business. The double degree program—BASc in Electrical Engineering and BSc in Computing Technology—will put you at the intersection of the two areas that propel the waves of technological development.

Upon completion of a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical engineering, a student who completes the requirements specified below for 33 extra units will be eligible for a BSc in Computing Technology as a second degree. The remaining 120 units are from their engineering degree; students follow the engineering degree requirements and the Computing Technology degree requirements in parallel. It is not allowed to obtain the Computing Technology degree without also completing the corresponding engineering degree.

The School of Translation and Interpretation (STI) offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Masters of arts in translation studies (MA), Master in Conference Interpreting (MCI) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in translation studies.

The master of Conference Interpreting is a professionally-oriented graduate program intended for graduates who wish to specialize in conference interpreting, which is a branch of the translation profession requiring intensive training. The program is intended for full-time students.

The MA in sociology is offered as a full-time and a part-time program, in French and in English. In English, the maximum number of annual admissions is fixed according to the procedure explained in the "Admission Requirements" section. In accordance with the University of Ottawa regulation, students may write their assignments, research papers, theses and examinations in either English or French.

The School of Music at the University of Ottawa is the only school of its kind in Canada to offer a music and cognition program that focuses on special music education. Its partnership with the Lotus Centre for Special Music Education, which provides adapted music education for the special needs community, makes for a complete learning experience combining theory and practice. You can choose to complete a 90-hour practicum and gain experience in special music education classes and camps. Interested? Enrol in the school’s microprogram, an intensive eighteen-hour workshop for which you will be credited if you start the MA program.

Journalism is currently undergoing a digital shift (Internet, mobile and tablet technology, data journalism), driving change in journalistic practice and forcing practitioners to develop new skills techniques and approaches. Today's journalists need to fill a diversity of roles, requiring not only a good understanding of emerging social trends, but also specialized expertise and knowledge. 

With this program, students (future digital journalists) will better understand the challenges related to journalism in the Digital Age, in order to help them enter the fast-changing media industry. Upon graduation, you will be qualified for an exciting career as a journalist, researcher, presenter, media analyst, producer, etc. 

The Department of Communication offers the Honours Bachelor in Digital Journalism jointly with Algonquin College (in English) and with La Cité (in French). Courses at the Department of Communication will provide theoretical, analytical and critical foundations, while courses at the College will focus on practical training. Combining both theory and practice, this training is bound to give you a head start.

Building on a solid foundation of traditional engineering skills, this program covers many different aspects of computer software and hardware design, and allows for more specialized studies in microprocessor-based systems, computer architecture, programming concepts, real-time operating systems, software engineering and robotics. This program provides multiple paths to a variety of careers.