Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Social Science in Disability Studies (Dual Degree)

at Western Sydney University - Parramatta South Campus Australia

Tailor your studies to your specific goals by combining our Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree.

When you graduate after four years, you have two degrees, and the unique skills relevant to the contemporary employment environment.

The Arts component combines academic knowledge with practical real life training. It is designed to equip you with a broad range of skills and knowledge in research and critical enquiry, and is sufficiently flexible to cater to a range of career aspirations and personal interests.

In the Creative Industries component you will combine a core of entrepreneurship with major studies including culture and society, creative writing, design, enterprise innovation, journalism, literature, media arts, music performance and photo media.

Geography and Urban Studies

Students in this major examine the geography of contemporary Australian cities and regions. Geography is the integrated study of people, places and environments.

The cutting edge interests of today’s Geographers include post-colonialism, the emergence of global information economies, indigenous issues, class and cultural disparities, population movement, sexuality and space, and the global diffusion of popular culture.

Urban Studies is a newer discipline focused on social justice within the city, through its critical assessments of peoples’ access to scarce urban resources, such as housing, transport, education and employment.

The political, economic, and cultural forces that shape cities and urban policy are the key concerns of the Urban Studies curriculum. These applied interests in urban well-being and city structure are the intellectual basis for the Urban Planning profession.

The Geography and Urban Studies major is a compulsory component of the University’s accredited Planning course.

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.

Geography and Urban Studies

Students in this major examine the geography of contemporary Australian cities and regions. Geography is the integrated study of people, places and environments.

The cutting edge interests of today’s Geographers include post-colonialism, the emergence of global information economies, indigenous issues, class and cultural disparities, population movement, sexuality and space, and the global diffusion of popular culture.

Urban Studies is a newer discipline focused on social justice within the city, through its critical assessments of peoples’ access to scarce urban resources, such as housing, transport, education and employment. 

This double degree program is designed in recognition of the globalising nature of the information technology industry.

In the IT area, the program allows students to develop skills in application development, program design, systems analysis and design, networks, web-design, and the implementation of technology.

 International English

International English examines English in its many varieties with a focus on the international development of the language, extending far beyond native English speakers, and identifying features of the language essential to academic and professional performance.

The major provides a basis for international students who may intend to teach English in different countries, or enter other language-centred professions, or for local students intending to pursue post-graduate qualifications in education or wanting to improve English skills. 

The major provides studies in the varieties and structures of English, informed by specific studies in linguistics, English teaching and bilingualism, and language acquisition.

Tailor your studies to your specific goals by combining our Bachelor of Communication degree with a Bachelor of Business degree. 

Through classwork, independent study and engagement with the multicultural nature of our communities, students develop an understanding of the local and international relevance of their chosen studies, with opportunities to develop and produce a range of media outcomes as applied research and professional projects throughout their studies.

Students complete a capstone subject in engaged learning that equips them as ‘business ready’ in terms of dealing with real world business issues and problems and generating real world business solutions.

Human Resource Management

The Human Resource Management Major is designed for people who seek careers in human resource management and industrial relations.

Graduates’ careers focus on enhancing the value of human and social capital through supporting employee engagement for many different kinds of organisations, market-oriented and community-oriented organisations and many kinds of people.

The teaching philosophy is based on knowledge in action, a fusion of the Australia Human Resource Institute’s capabilities for HR professionals and the Western Sydney University Graduate Attributes designed to secure success.

An aim of the program is to instil those values and attitudes that can support leaders in judgements about balancing the pursuit of organisational objectives with creating opportunities for developing people’s capacities and careers. The perspectives are local and international, with an emphasis on the value of cultural and demographic diversity.

If you’re creative, passionate and a problem solver, our enhanced Arts degree could be for you.

Choose a study plan that aligns with your own interests. Find your passion and select from 27 majors. Discover opportunities for internships and overseas study.

Criminology and Criminal Justice

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.

With a Bachelor of Social Science from Western, you will have the ability to help shape the world we live in. This degree expands your knowledge through theory, research and practical application and offers you a deep understanding of our complex, culturally diverse and dynamic world. You will gain access to industry-based projects and placements, local and international work experience and build the practical skills that will get you ready to apply your knowledge to the workforce.

Heritage Tourism

In a highly mobile world (migration, tourism, media and communications, travel and transport) and in contemporary life where the preservation of historical and natural environments present as one of the major challenges facing all societies, heritage has become a touchstone for social and cultural identity, our understanding of modernity, peace and development, our senses of citizenship, custodianship and community. At the same time heritage places have become significant tourist destinations and so in a world of flows and networks, the heritage-tourism relationship is a critical one. In the 21st century it is impossible to disentangle the two.

This major introduces contemporary heritage issues and provides an in-depth understanding of tourism as a social phenomenon. It enables a critical examination of the relationship between heritage and tourism in number of settings within Australia (including Indigenous Australia) and internationally.

Graduates with a heritage and tourism major can contemplate careers within a diverse range of government, non-government organization and businesses that require understanding, insight and skills related to heritage and tourism.

The Graduate Diploma in Information and Communications Technology is designed for students from both computing and non-computing backgrounds, to enable you to have a pathway into higher studies in Information and Communications Technology and to support a career in ICT.

The Graduate Diploma offers you formal training in the theoretical aspects of ICT, creating a solid base to continue your progression in the ICT field.

The speed of change in ICT requires everyone to update their knowledge every few years. This Graduate Diploma program lays a proper foundation in ICT whereby you can gain knowledge and confidence to proceed to further studies and career advancement.

The program is also designed to enable inexperienced, non-ICT students to enter a career in ICT. You will benefit from the University's policies on recognition of prior learning by allowing a matching of an individual's professional experience against specific subjects that form part of the Graduate Diploma in ICT.

The University has a long history of providing well-designed degrees in ICT that are accredited at the professional level by the Australian Computer Society (ACS). We recognise and concentrate on the vital role that computer networks, including internet and web technologies, play in all areas of life. This is reflected in our research strengths in networking and web engineering. This program will prepare you to undertake further studies in these two vital areas.

Tailor your studies to your specific goals by combining our Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree.

When you graduate after four years, you have two degrees, and the unique skills relevant to the contemporary employment environment.

The Arts component combines academic knowledge with practical real life training. It is designed to equip you with a broad range of skills and knowledge in research and critical enquiry, and is sufficiently flexible to cater to a range of career aspirations and personal interests.

In the Creative Industries component you will combine a core of entrepreneurship with major studies including culture and society, creative writing, design, enterprise innovation, journalism, literature, media arts, music performance and photo media.

 International English

International English examines English in its many varieties with a focus on the international development of this language, extending far beyond native English speakers, and identifying features of the language essential to academic and professional performance.

The major provides a basis for international students who may intend to teach English in different countries, or enter other language-centred professions, or for local students intending to pursue post-graduate degrees in education or wanting to improve English skills.

The major provides studies in the varieties and structures of English, informed by specific studies in linguistics, English teaching and bilingualism and language acquisition.

Tailor your studies to your specific goals by combining our Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree.

When you graduate after four years, you have two degrees, and the unique skills relevant to the contemporary employment environment.

The Arts component combines academic knowledge with practical real life training. It is designed to equip you with a broad range of skills and knowledge in research and critical enquiry, and is sufficiently flexible to cater to a range of career aspirations and personal interests.

In the Creative Industries component you will combine a core of entrepreneurship with major studies including culture and society, creative writing, design, enterprise innovation, journalism, literature, media arts, music performance and photo media.

Psychological Studies

The Psychological Studies major comprises units in the discipline of psychology that focus on the field of inquiry that uses scientific techniques and methods to understand and explain behaviour and experience.

Areas of study include: the brain and behaviour, learning, motivation and emotion, social psychology, lifespan development, perception, and cognitive processes. A Psychological Studies major does not meet APAC requirements for an accredited sequence in Psychology.

Students wishing to enrol in an accredited Psychology sequence should complete the Psychology key program of 160 credit points.

This degree opens doors to entrepreneurship, start-up companies and new innovations that require business knowledge and cutting-edge information systems and technology skills.

Today, to implement technology, practising professionals need to not only have knowledge and skills in information and communications technology, but they also need to understand the context in which computer technology can best be selected, applied and implemented.

The business component of the double degree will allow students to gain knowledge in one of three core Business areas: Money, Markets or Management. 

Management

The Management major equips you with the expert skills to create a career as a management specialist. You will be prepared to succeed in a range of roles in contemporary private, public, and not-for-profit organisations in Australia and abroad. 

In this major you will develop strategic management knowledge to enable effective organisational decision making. The units in this major focus on organisational learning and development and behaviour, operations management, leadership and entrepreneurship, change and innovation, and policy.