Bachelor of Arts

The Bachelor of Arts at the University of Notre Dame Australia is a three-year degree built around choice. You pick a major from the social sciences and psychology area, then add a second major or a set of minors from across the arts, humanities, business or science. That structure means you can pair psychology with counselling, or sociology with politics, and shape a degree that matches where you want to work afterwards.

How the degree is structured

Australian bachelor degrees run on a semester model, and this one is no exception. You complete units of study each semester, and each unit carries credit points. A full-time load is usually four units a semester, and you need a set number of credit points to graduate. Core units give you the research and writing skills every arts graduate needs. Major units build your specialist knowledge. Electives let you test a field you have never studied before. Many students finish with a capstone unit in their final year, where they pull their learning together on a substantial project or research task.

What you actually study

In the social sciences and psychology stream you will cover areas such as human behaviour, research methods, statistics for the social sciences, social policy, and the way individuals and communities interact. Psychology units at undergraduate level give you a grounding in the discipline, though you should check with the university whether a particular major meets the requirements for provisional registration as a psychologist, because that usually needs an accredited sequence plus further study. Social science units lean towards understanding institutions, inequality, culture and change, and they involve a lot of reading, discussion and written argument.

Skills and work experience

You graduate able to research a question, weigh evidence, write clearly and present an argument. Those skills travel well. Notre Dame has strong links to community organisations, government agencies and schools, and arts students often take a professional placement or community engagement unit as part of their degree. That is where you find out what policy work, casework or community development actually feels like day to day. The university's Fremantle and Sydney campuses put you close to the organisations that hire arts graduates.

Who this suits

This degree suits someone who is curious about people and society and does not want to be locked into one narrow path at eighteen. It also suits students who want to combine arts with a professional goal, such as teaching, social work, law or journalism, through a double degree or postgraduate study. International students should note the English requirement: IELTS Academic 6.0 to 6.5 overall is the usual undergraduate standard, higher for teaching, nursing, medicine, law and social work. TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and the university's own English programmes are accepted as equivalents, and the Department of Home Affairs sets a separate English threshold for the Student visa. While studying, a Student visa allows 48 hours of work per fortnight. After graduating, the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream lets eligible graduates stay and work in Australia. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 015324A. Confirm entry requirements, unit lists and fees on the official university page before you apply.

• Policy officer in state and federal government departments, local councils and not-for-profits
• Community services worker in family support, youth services, housing and disability organisations
• Human resources officer in private firms, government agencies and recruitment companies
• Research assistant in universities, social research firms and market research agencies
• Communications and media officer in charities, unions, advocacy groups and public sector media teams
• Case worker or support worker in mental health, aged care and community health settings
• Programme coordinator in international development, aid agencies and community organisations
• Further study pathway into postgraduate psychology, social work, teaching, law or public policy, which many arts graduates use to move into accredited professions