Bachelor of Communication / Bachelor of Laws (Honours) in Public Affairs

at Western Sydney University - Parramatta South Campus Australia

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.

Musicology

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.

Take the lead in a critical area of needed skills. Our Master of Health Science degree offers you the opportunity to lead in the fields of Health Services Management, Occupational Health and Safety or Digital Health.

The degree is specifically designed to prepare new, aspiring, and middle tier health service practitioners, planners, and managers to lead in the strategic and operational management of a wide range of health services and facilities.

Occupational Health and Safety

This specialisation focuses on the practice of workplace health within national and international frameworks. It explores issues such as the physical, social and mental impact of the occupational environment on health. Strategies for the management of workplace health are examined, together with methods of monitoring and evaluating occupational health programs. Students have the opportunity to develop a safety systems program concentrating on hazard identification, risk assessment and devising control measures incorporating safety management principles. Students in this specialisation can further focus their studies in project management and research and evaluation.

This double degree provides you with the practical skills and knowledge required to excel in the fields of both business and law. The Bachelor of Business degree gives you the knowledge to create a career as a business professional. Whether you wish to pursue a corporate role in a global enterprise or start your own business, this degree will provide you with the skills to do it. 

The Bachelor of Laws (Honours) program satisfies the academic degree requirements for admission to practice as an Australian lawyer. Students will engage in collaborative face-to-face problem and case-based learning, will be supported by online learning materials, and will participate in authentic assessment to develop knowledge and skills. The program provides students with a broad progressive legal education with a strong practical orientation to the law. Students develop skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, research, communication, collaboration, self-management, and ethical and professional awareness and judgement. Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in legal advocacy, negotiation, and legal technology and extend their professional and learning experiences through work integrated learning, clinical placement and international exchange engagements.

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.

This double degree is designed for students whose interests span the Arts and Business.

Study in the Bachelor of Arts component is designed to develop communication and personal skills, creativity and a capacity for independent thought, adaptability to new situations and problem-solving skills, attributes increasingly demanded by employers.

History  and Political Thought

Since the revival of humanist thought in the Renaissance, universities have placed studies in history and political thought at the centre of exploring what it is to be human.

At the heart of the History and Political Thought major are four compulsory units which introduce the student to the modern (since 1500) history of humanity. Although Europe is very prominent in the Major, the student will be invited to compare its history to the histories of Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The Major culminates in a capstone unit in students’ final semester discussing historical theories and methods. A wide range of elective units covers European, American, Australian and Asian history and political thought and includes thematic units which range widely over time and place.

This double degree is designed for students whose interests span the Arts and Business.

Study in the Bachelor of Arts component is designed to develop communication and personal skills, creativity and a capacity for independent thought, adaptability to new situations and problem-solving skills, attributes increasingly demanded by employers.

Economics

The Economics major provides a broad pluralist perspective on fundamental aspects of relationships between individuals, firms, institutions and countries. Students will learn how economies function and how public policy and the way organisations behave affect diverse social, economic and environmental problems. Students are introduced to a wide array of competing economic theories, so that they are critically informed about the ways in which they can transform the world. A major in Economics prepares students to be active participants in addressing the wide range of problems faced by governments, social organisations and the business community in the domestic and international economies. Students who study economics can expect to develop their analytical and problem solving skills and to be intellectually challenged, whether they view the discipline as providing specific vocational skills or as an area of academic and intellectual interest to them. An Economics major is very highly regarded in the business world and opens up a very large range of career prospects in general business, finance and the public sector.

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.

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 double degree program is designed for students whose interests span the Arts and Sciences. Our graduates work across a range of academic and professional disciplines, including the opportunity to develop global perspectives.

Biology

Biology is underpinned by cells, the fundamental units necessary for organisms to grow, reproduce and interact with each other and the environment. Cells are also the basis of emerging computer models and bio-technology innovations. Biologists integrate principles from many disciplines, including chemistry, bio-physics, genetics, biochemistry, physiology and bioinformatics, for a more complete understanding of animal, plant and microbial cell function.

Understanding these processes and the principles that govern the organization and function of cells are a necessary framework for creating the next advances in developmental biology and disease mitigation. At Western Sydney University, the strong emphasis on hands-on experience gives biology graduates an excellent foundation for careers in: teaching, academia, research, biotechnology, industry, law and administration. The flexibility of the major also enables students to combine their interest with other disciplines including ecology, environment, zoology and agriculture and environmental health.

By connecting creative writing practice to ideas and creative work from the arts and sciences, the Master of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing offers you the opportunity to think across creative, critical and disciplinary categories, and to produce either works of scholarship or creative writing (or related creative work that crosses into other areas including music, art, performance and film).

The Writing and Research Centre at Western Sydney University offers a challenging, rigorous programwork and project-based Master’s degree, combining criticism and creative work and leading to a Master of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing.

The centre is unique in Australia in the way it combines scholarship, authorship and expertise in publishing. The centre includes some of Australia’s most celebrated writers (such as the novelists Gail Jones and Alexis Wright) and widely published literary scholars and critics with international reputations (such as Ivor Indyk, Hazel Smith, Chris Andrews, and Anthony Uhlmann).

Western Sydney University is ranked above world standard in both the study of literature and creative arts practice. The centre houses the highly decorated literary press Giramondo Publishing, and the pre-eminent literary review site in Australia, The Sydney Review of Books.

With outstanding resources, the University is able to offer multifaceted understanding of literature and writing. Hazel Smith is a world leader in the field of practice-led research and research-led practice, and this carries with it our philosophy of deepening the understanding of both critical and creative practice by linking critical and creative thinking.

In short, the centre is one of the best places in Australia to either become a writer or to think in a critical and scholarly way about writing.

Graduates can plan a career in media, public relations, journalism or advertising companies with skills adaptable to many environments.

This combined degree ensures that your future work appeals to the right target audience.

The Bachelor of Communication component covers all areas of creative communication, enabling you to understand how your field of study is connected to other disciplines.

The Creative Industries degree partners with creative industries to provide an interdisciplinary, experiential degree that combines 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.

Music

The Music major provides students from outside the Music program with a comprehensive introduction to current practice in the fields of music, performance and sound production for sound design, composition and performance.

Foundation level units examine the fundamentals of music performance, acoustics, stereo recording and mixing, MIDI systems and sequencing, sound synthesis, and composition utilising environmental sound.

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.

Chinese

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.