Undergraduate - UnitATS3725 - Population and society

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Sociology
Offered	Clayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

Synopsis

The unit examines Australian population issues and their social dimensions. The components of demographic change will be examined, as will the dramatic social consequences of population change. Substantive issues covered will include population ageing, the determinants of fertility and partnering in Australia and the factors shaping Australian immigration policy. Students will also learn how to address a population question in-depth using relevant information extracted from the Australian unit record census data files.

Outcomes

On completion of the unit, students will be able to:

understand key concepts and tools used in the study of population
identify the components of change in the size, structure and composition of the population
identify and articulate some of the many social origins of demographic trends
identify and articulate social consequences of demographic trends
engage critically with public debate over population issues
use ABS Tablebuilder (for Australian census data) and extract relevant data to address a research question
describe and interpret tables extracted from Australian census data files

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Associate Professor Dharma Arunachalam

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Sociology

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of second-year Arts units. It is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two gateway units in Sociology.

Prohibitions

ATS2725