Bachelor of International Studies/Bachelor of Social Science in International Studies (Dual Degree)

at Western Sydney University - Bankstown Campus Australia

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.

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 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.

 Creative Writing

The Creative Writing major provides students the opportunity to produce their own creative writing and to edit and publish their work. Students study with professional authors, editors and publishers from the Writing and Society Research Centre and staff from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. In addition, students have the opportunity to study contemporary approaches to language and literary studies, including literary criticism and theory, linguistic analysis, genre and textual study, and to read and examine a wide selection of modern and classic literatures. Career prospects include publishing, editing, teaching, writing and advertising.

This criminology major offers students the opportunity to study crime and criminal justice in a critical way that particularly stresses social and cultural definitions of criminality and the reactions to it.

Areas of focus include criminal justice institutions and practices; the development of criminology as a discipline and its various strands; forms and patterns of victimisation; crime prevention strategies and debates; aspects of juvenile justice; the evolution of prisons and different forms of punishment; law enforcement and surveillance; violence, gender and crime; cultural depictions of crime and contemporary debates in criminology.

What makes people do the things they do? How does the mind work? How can you help others to lead their best lives?

Psychology at Western can help you find the answers. Western ranks among the world’s top universities for Psychology. Offers you access to state-of- the-art facilities, local and international work placements, and the most respected experts in the field.

Psychology at Western combines evidence-based biological, cognitive, neurological, social, developmental, and personality theory with statistical expertise and practical experience.

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.

Criminology

This criminology major offers students the opportunity to study crime and criminal justice in a critical way that particularly stresses social and cultural definitions of criminality and the reactions to it.

Areas of focus include criminal justice institutions and practices; the development of criminology as a discipline and its various strands; forms and patterns of victimisation; crime prevention strategies and debates; aspects of juvenile justice; the evolution of prisons and different forms of punishment; law enforcement and surveillance; violence, gender and crime; cultural depictions of crime and contemporary debates in criminology.

This combined degree is designed for students who want to combine their interest and expertise in International Relations and Asian Studies with a good understanding of basic business issues, complemented by a high level of knowledge relevant to a specific business discipline.

Graduates will have a solid grounding in the relationships of societies, cultures, languages and systems of government within the international system.

Students will develop their capacity to appreciate the historical development of relations among nation states, and analyse contemporary political, economic, social and cultural issues such as globalisation, transnationalism and migration.

Students complete a major in International Relations and Asian Studies, a minor in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish or Japanese languages, and a major in Marketing. When combined with a high level of knowledge from the specific business majors, you will be ready for the workplace of the future.

 International Relations

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 subjects concerned with the United States and Europe as well as with Asia itself, and subjects in international relations covering other parts of the world. It seeks to produce graduates with a broad, liberal education with the skills to mediate between Australia and the world in general and Asia in particular through political, economic, commercial, cultural, diplomatic and strategic links. Students are encouraged to undertake a minor in an Asian language in conjunction with the major.

The Musicology major provides students from outside the Music program with an introduction to the history of Western classical music, and popular and classical musics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

It offers perspectives on modernism, postmodernism and post-postmodernism, and incorporates social, political and philosophical critiques of music.

The Sport Management major is designed for people who seek careers in Australian and international Sport management. Specialist units provide students with a capacity to understand and function within the increasingly dedicated context in which sport is played, organised and managed. Students who complete this major will be equipped with the skills and knowledge to manage sport experiences pertaining to globalisation and emerging contemporary issues in sport. Graduates find career employment at all levels of government as well as within the private sector for both commercial and non-commercial organisations. Positions include project management of facilities and events, management and coordination of leisure, sport and civic event departments, sport marketing, player management and sport public relations, elite sport development, sport and leisure programming.

What does it mean to live in Indigenous Australia?

The Indigenous Australian Studies Major offers students the exciting opportunity to acquire key cultural competencies that will enable them to understand and work more effectively with Indigenous Australians in professions such as the arts, communications, media industries; education; government and non-government; policy; health; sciences; and community services.

The Indigenous Australian Studies Major addresses the cultural, historical, social and economic issues affecting Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians and relationships.

Cultural and Social Analysis is an interdisciplinary major developing knowledge, research skills and analytic capacities relevant to understanding and interpreting landscapes of cultural diversity and social difference in our contemporary world, both in terms of the broad contours, as well as specific micro-social environments.

This major provides grounding in contemporary debates and methodologies in cultural studies and social theory, and draws on various disciplines including history, sociology, communications, and linguistics. Topics include popular culture, everyday urban life, cultural and social impacts of scientific theories and new technologies, multiculturalism, and contemporary spirituality.

Study in this area is relevant for work involving commentary and analysis of contemporary social issues and cultural practices (e.g. journalism, teaching, activism) and fields concerned with designing, delivering and evaluating cultural and artistic productions, and education, communication, welfare or health services, in culturally diverse communities.