Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Communications and Media

This is a four-year double degree that pairs a Bachelor of Commerce with a Bachelor of Communications and Media. You graduate with two qualifications, which means you can walk into a business role that understands audiences, or a media role that understands how organisations actually make money. The commerce half covers the core of a business degree: accounting, economics, finance, management and marketing. The communications and media half covers writing and editing, media production, public relations, digital communication and the way media industries work in Australia. You choose majors or specialisations within each half, so the combination is yours to shape.

How the degree is structured

Australian bachelor degrees are built on units of study, each worth a set number of credit points. A double degree like this runs longer than a single three-year bachelor because you complete the core requirements of both awards, usually four years of full-time study. Notre Dame delivers its programs across semesters, with teaching, assessment and exam periods in each. You will typically take a mix of core units and electives, and the two halves are usually studied alongside each other rather than one after the other, so you keep both sets of skills ticking over.

The University of Notre Dame Australia also builds service-learning and professional experience into its degrees, and this double degree includes work-integrated learning through placements and industry projects. Commerce students commonly do internships with accounting firms, banks, government agencies and not-for-profits, while communications students do placements in newsrooms, PR consultancies, marketing teams and media production houses. Notre Dame has campuses in Fremantle, Sydney and Broome, so where you study shapes the industry connections you build.

What you actually learn

On the commerce side you learn to read a balance sheet, build a budget, analyse a market and argue a business case. On the communications side you learn to write for different audiences, produce content across platforms, manage a media campaign and handle a public issue when it goes sideways. Put together, that is a person who can draft the strategy and then write the announcement. Employers in Australia consistently say they want graduates who can do both.

Who this suits

This degree suits school leavers who cannot decide between business and media, and mature students who want to formalise experience in either field. If you are interested in corporate communications, investor relations, brand management, journalism with a business focus, or running your own venture, the double degree gives you the language of both rooms. Entry is through the usual Australian undergraduate pathways, including ATAR, prior study or work experience, and international applicants need to meet the English requirement published by the university. That is IELTS Academic 6.0 to 6.5 overall for most undergraduate courses, though teaching, nursing, medicine, law and social work sit higher at 7.0 to 7.5. TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and Notre Dame's own English programmes are accepted as equivalents. The Department of Home Affairs sets a separate English threshold for the Student visa, so check both.

International students on a Student visa can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while studying, and graduates may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 073149G. Check the official course page for current unit lists, campus options, intake dates and fees before you apply.

Graduates work across business and media, often in roles that sit between the two.

• Corporate communications and public affairs officer
• Marketing coordinator or brand manager
• Public relations consultant
• Media and content producer
• Business analyst or management consultant
• Account manager in an advertising or media agency
• Journalist or editor with a business or finance focus
• Investor relations or stakeholder engagement officer
• Policy and communications adviser in government
• Founder or operator of a small business or media venture

Australian industries that hire these graduates include banking and financial services, professional services and consulting, advertising and media agencies, broadcasting and publishing, telecommunications, government departments and agencies, not-for-profits, and the growing communications teams inside large Australian companies.