Bachelor of Arts - Actuarial Science

at York University - School of Continuing Studies Canada

This Specialized Honours BA program blends English and Professional Writing into a single degree program that highlights and enhances the relationship between the two fields of study as opposed to a traditional double major or major/minor degree in which the two fields are treated as separate rather than complementary disciplines.

English and Professional Writing is a “keeping doors open” program for students as devoted to reading and thinking critically about literature as they are to writing. The English side of the degree keeps open the possibility of graduate work in literary studies or a post-degree program in Education, while the Professional Writing side attends to practice and more immediate employability.

English and Professional Writing is, so far as we know, unique in Canada in offering this dual qualification, which produces graduates with a greater range of practical skills than graduates of English programs and greater theoretical sophistication and rhetorical flair than graduates of writing programs. It is not for every student but, for some medleys of aptitudes and aspirations, it is a glove.
For more information on the Professional Writing side of the ENPR program, please visit  http://prwr.writ.laps.yorku.ca/about/

York's Theatre programs immerse students in all aspects of theatre, fostering the ability to specialize or to assume a wide range of roles and apply various approaches to performance.  Through their creative and scholarly practice, students learn to constantly reassess the meaning of their work in the context of our ever-changing society, and to develop the critical thinking to understand and make a contribution to the world around them.

Program Structure
All Theatre students share a common first foundation year, in which they take courses across the various fields of theatre and performance. At the end of forst year students branch into one of four streams based on their interests and goals.*
Throughout the programs, students work together as actors and as members of creative and production teams in the department's many productions.

Streams
Acting Conservatory
With intensive studies in acting, movement and voice, the Acting Conservatory takes students deep into scene study, script analysis and character development. Upper year Conservatory members are cast in Theatre @ York's mainstage shows, featuring classic and contemporary masterpieces from Canada and around the world, chosen to address some of the big cultural and politacal debates facing society.

Performance Creation
This BFA degree stream places emphasis on studio coursework, such as Stagecraft, Devised Theatre, Scene Study and Directing. In keeping with the broader scope of Performance Creation work, this degree prepares students to move fluidly across artistic disciplines and to assume a range of roles in collaborative performance settings. This degree is ideal for students who want to produce sophisticated, meaningful performance work that engages with larger issues of social justice and sustainability.

Production and Design
Combining hands-on technical skills with creative aspects of theatre as storytelling, this program engages students in all elements of theatrical design and stage production. Courses in sound, lighting, scenery and costume design and construction are complimented by studies in technical direction and management.

Theatre Studies
This BA program focuses on studies in dramatic and performance theory, cristicism and history, and in theatre education. Students may choose to specialize in Playwriting and New Play Dramaturgy learning to write for the stage, or Devised Theatre focusing on collaborative creation of original works, incorporating all elements of playmaking, design and management to performance.

Mathematics for Education is designed for students considering a career in teaching. Students can be enrolled in York's concurrent education program or may intend to take a two year consecutive education program. This program offers a broader background in a wider perspective on the teaching and learning of mathematics.

York offers two teacher education programs:

• concurrent undergraduate programs for students already enrolled in other undergraduate Faculties
• consecutive undergraduate full-time program for prospective teachers who have already graduated in another discipline

You enter the concurrent program in your third or fourth year. Selection is based on:

• academic achievement
• oral communication abilities
• personal characteristics relevant to the teaching profession

Two years are added to your undergraduate studies and in the remaining four years you work concurrently to complete the requirements of your undergraduate program as well as the professional teaching program.

You enter the two-year consecutive full-time program if you hold an undergraduate degree. Selection is based on:

• education-related experience
• academic achievement
• oral communication skills
• personal characteristics relevant to the teaching profession

York offers some of the best Math support services in the country including a Math Tutorial Lab, a Statistics Tutorial Lab, a regular schedule of help sessions offered by professors, peer tutoring and study groups.

There are three streams within the Physics and Astronomy program:

• Physics
• Applied Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics

Physics is the most fundamental science discipline. It attempts to understand nature at its deepest level. It develops an understanding and description of all forms of energy and matter and can be said to occupy the middle ground between mathematics and engineering.

Astronomy is the science that deals with the origin, evolution, composition, distance and motion of all bodies and scattered matter in the universe. It includes astrophysics, which discusses the physical properties and structure of all cosmic matter. Participate in world-class research projects led by our professors in fields as diverse as atomic and molecular physics, laser physics, elementary particle and subatomic physics and engineering physics. Students from this program routinely win prestigious grants to support them in all areas of graduate research.

You will gain a strong grounding in physics, astronomy and computer-based physics with a strong experimental physics component. You will not only learn the subject matter, but also learn how to write scientific reports, and deliver oral presentations on a topic of your choice. The physical world is open to you!

• Work with professors in our research groups like those in experimental high-energy (particle) physics and astronomy and the Centre for Research in Earth & Space Science.
• It's natural to combine Physics with other disciplines, such as Earth and Atmospheric Science, Chemistry, Computer Science or Biology. Given that physics teachers for high schools are difficult to find, why not combine Physics & Astronomy studies with a teaching degree?
• York's Astronomical Observatory is actively engaged in a long-term variable star monitoring program. Although clear and dark skies are not as frequent as one would like in Toronto, the results from this on going research have yielded relatively "clean" and valid scientific results. Results are presented at the annual Canadian Astronomical Society meetings each year. Come to a public viewing on Wednesday night or take a virtual tour.
• The Astronomy Club brings together all those who look to beauty, those who seek knowledge and those who are simply curious to meet, discuss and learn about the cosmos in which we live.

Study the health of the world’s population that is intertwined with broader issues, including wealth disparity, environmental degradation, government policy and human rights. Students in York’s Global Health degree examine these and other issues in small classroom settings benefitting from direct interaction with their professors and fellow students. Combine your classroom learning with a fourth-year field placement offered with organizations locally or internationally.

Global Health Courses
All students, whether in the BA or BSc options, are exposed to the major issues that are at the forefront of global health through core courses, including:

• Global Health Governance and Leadership
• Global Health Policy, Power and Politics
• Health and Human Rights
• Determinants of Health: Local to Global
• Chronic Diseases and Care
• Communicable Diseases and Care
• Healthcare Planning for Communities
• Healthcare Ethics
• Agents of Change in a Global World (strongly recommended as an elective course)

Pathways to Medical, Professional Schools & Post-Graduate Training
Taught by professors in all areas of the Faculty of Health – Health Policy & Management, Kinesiology & Health Science, Nursing and Psychology – the Global Health degree provides an excellent foundation for medical school, professional schools (e.g. law, teaching), graduate school and post-graduate training (e.g. nursing).

Global Health as a 2nd Degree
Students who hold an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution and are admissible according to Faculty of Health and York University policies may pursue a second degree in Global Health at York University. With full-time study (i.e., 15 credits per term), students may be able to complete an Honours BA/BSc degree in Global Health in as little as four terms (two calendar years). Students pursuing a Specialized Honours BA/BSc degree in Global Health may complete the program in six terms (3 calendar years).

Students will be assessed as eligible for an Honours or Specialized Honours degree in Global Health if they have graduated with an Honours or 90-credit bachelor’s degree. Students will be granted transfer credit in accordance with the University’s residency requirement. Depending on the program of study from an applicant’s first degree, it is likely that all general education and many elective course requirements will be waived. This will allow students to focus exclusively on their Global Health major course requirements as they fast-track their studies.

Put most simply, religious studies is the academic study of religion, exploring the range of phenomena that fall within the categories "religion" or "religious" from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. It brings together perspectives and approaches from history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and literature to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the individuals and traditions that constitute religions and cultures.

Because religions and the religious deal with questions of meaning and orientation, religious studies provides a place for you to explore in a disciplined fashion how and why humans have appealed to spirituality and the divine as they’ve struggled to make sense of themselves and their world. To study religion is to study responses, both behavioural and intellectual, to some of the great riddles and questions that face human beings, including: death, suffering, tragedy, and the nature of the self and the universe. Religious Studies is also a "teachable" subject for students who wish to combine their BA with a teaching qualification from York's Faculty of Education.

You can focus on the major religious traditions of the West and Near East such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam - or those of the Far East such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism or pursue a more comparative approach. You will also have the opportunity to learn about a variety of religious cultures including Chinese, Korean, Caribbean and Native North American.

In the core course, you will learn how to use various analytical methods to explore the rich variety of the world's religious traditions.

Our program gives you a thorough grounding in sophisticated text analysis and improves your writing skills - excellent preparation for any number of careers, including the clergy and law. Our classes are small and emphasize personal contact between students and professors.

• Study religious expression in a variety of cultures including those of India, China, Korea and Native communities of North America, and visit the historical places discussed in class through a York International study abroad program.
• Leonard Wolinsky Scholarship is awarded annually to two York undergraduates for one year's full-time study in an Israeli university.
• In the area of research, Professor Amila Buturovic is in great demand by the media to comment on Islam in the modern world. Professor Buturovic also does research on Muslim poets from the former Yugoslavia.
• The Moderator of the United Church of Canada, Rt. Rev. Marion Pardy, is a graduate of our Religious Studies program.

Graduates of the ITEC program are uniquely positioned to plan, design, build and administer information systems.

Information technology deals with information and its use in organizations and society. York's Information Technology (ITEC) programs provide you with the educational background to pursue an exciting career in the application of computers to a variety of tasks faced by organizations today.

Unlike traditional computer science and engineering programs, which focus on developing broad computing skills, ITEC focuses on applications of software and information technologies and how they can be systematically designed and developed to meet critical business and organizational problems.
 
This way, ITEC prepares you to become a versatile Information Technology professional who possesses a strongly developed intuition about business, organizational and societal needs, and combines it with robust technical and methodological skills to analyze, design, implement, customize and manage information technologies to fulfil those needs. 

Bachelor of Commerce – Information Technology

The BCom - ITEC ensures that in addition to essential technical and methodological skills, graduates have a deeper and broader understanding of business and commerce. Thus, courses on accounting, marketing, organization behaviour, enterprise resource planning and strategy are added to the list of courses. 

Students in our BCom - ITEC program will pursue specializations in:

• Business Systems Analysis: will prepare you for a career as an information technology analyst, systems analyst or information technology consultant.
• E-Commerce Development: gives you the technical knowledge required for the design and development of consumer and business-to-business electronic commerce systems.
• Information Technology Auditing & Assurance: responds to the growing demand for information system audit, control and security professionals. This stream was developed in close consultation with the Information Systems Audit and Control Association and will be of interest to students seeking the certified Information Systems Auditor designation.

4 years honours option also avilable for this program. For more information please visit program page.

Economic problems arise out of the conflict between an apparently limitless human demand for goods and services and a limited supply of resources for satisfying those demands. Economics combines theory and analysis with attention to practical problems and critical modern issues.

The Economics program will expose you to both the wide range of individual and social problems that arise from this conflict and to the distinctive economic approach to their solution. Our unique teaching approach that blends theory and case studies to give you the in-depth training necessary to apply the analytical and quantitative tools needed to understand complex economic issues. You can create a mathematical and statistical concentration, focus on learning how to model and forecast economic activities, or get a comprehensive understanding of contemporary economics and/or business. You'll also develop skills to analyze practical business problems such as:

• Market Forecasting
• Pricing Policies
• Strategic Financing
• Business Development

Mathematics for Education is designed for students considering a career in teaching. Students can be enrolled in York's concurrent education program or may intend to take a two year consecutive education program. This program offers a broader background in a wider perspective on the teaching and learning of mathematics.

York offers two teacher education programs:

• Concurrent undergraduate programs for students already enrolled in other undergraduate Faculties
• Consecutive undergraduate full-time program for prospective teachers who have already graduated in another discipline

You enter the concurrent program in your third or fourth year. Selection is based on:

• Academic achievement
• Oral communication abilities
• Personal characteristics relevant to the teaching profession

Two years are added to your undergraduate studies and in the remaining four years you work concurrently to complete the requirements of your undergraduate program as well as the professional teaching program.

You enter the two-year consecutive full-time program if you hold an undergraduate degree. Selection is based on:

• Education-related experience
• Academic achievement
• Oral communication skills
• Personal characteristics relevant to the teaching profession

York offers some of the best Math support services in the country including a Math Tutorial Lab, a Statistics Tutorial Lab, a regular schedule of help sessions offered by professors, peer tutoring and study groups.

The Professional Writing Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University offers students a unique opportunity to study and to acquire practical expertise in a wide range of written expressions that inform and shape our culture. The combination of knowledge and expertise is highly sought after by employers who recognize the spiralling need for effective communications in today’s and tomorrow’s economy. Students in our program develop inventive approaches to writing that keep pace with cultural, social, and technological transformation in the contemporary world.

Why Professional Writing at York?
York’s Professional Writing Program is unique.  As a program of the Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Faculty, we strive to connect and complement the traditional strengths of a Liberal Arts degree with practical, professional experience.  Our program core provides a firm grounding in the history, theory, and critical investigation of writing practices while providing  hands-on experience in the creation, management, and presentation of dynamic, responsive writing.