Bachelor of Global Studies - 2019

Undergraduate - Course

Commencement year

This course entry applies to students commencing this course in 2019 and should be read in conjunction with information provided in the 'Faculty information' section of this Handbook by the Faculty of Arts.

Other commencement years for this course: 2018, 2017, 2016 and more

Unit codes that are not linked to their entry in the Handbook are not available for study in the current year.

Course code

A2001

Credit points

144

Abbreviated title

BGS

CRICOS code

083203B

Managing faculty

Arts

Coordinator

Dr Susan Carland

Contact details

Tel: 1800 MONASH (1800 666 274) or visit the Arts undergraduate programsundergraduate programs (http://future.arts.monash.edu) website

Admission and fees

Australia

Course progression map

A2001 (pdf)

Course type

Specialist
Bachelor

Standard duration

3 years FT, 6 years PT

You have a maximum of 8 years to complete this course including any periods of intermission and suspension, and must be continuously enrolled throughout.

Mode and location

On-campus (Clayton)

You may select free elective units from any campus, but you should be aware of the teaching location as this may require travel to another campus. You may also select units offered in off-campus mode. Note: This course has a compulsory overseas study component.

Award

Bachelor of Global Studies

Alternative exits

Bachelor of Arts

Refer to 'Alternative exits' entry below for further requirements and details.

Description

How can we conceptualise the most important challenges confronting our global communities, devise new and innovative solutions to these challenges, and communicate the solutions effectively? The Bachelor of Global Studies course has been designed for students who seek to be leaders in applying their knowledge to these global challenges.

The course aims to develop leadership for social change focusing on key capabilities: creativity, teamwork, cross-cultural collaboration, critical thinking, self-learning, analytical writing skills. We seek to cultivate a rich understanding of the interplay of local, regional and global forces and equip you with sharp analytical abilities and flexible, imaginative and well-informed disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. All core units will enable you to apply your learning in practical and professional 'real life' contexts.

A key component of the course is a required period of study overseas that can be completed intensively at a Monash international campus or at a prestigious partner university.

Part of the required overseas component of the Bachelor of Global Studies can be completed by accessing the Monash Arts Global Immersion Guarantee - a guarantee* funded overseas experience to China, India, Italy, Indonesia or Malaysia. A new benchmark in globally-focused education, you will have the opportunity to spend two weeks studying overseas, with airfares and accommodation all covered as part of the degree.

*Eligibility requirements apply: First year Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Global Studies students (and relevant double degrees) in good academic standing, who have undertaken 24 points of credit (including a minimum of 12 points Arts) and have passed all their Arts units.

Double degrees

The Bachelor of Global Studies can be taken in combination with the following courses:

  • B2001 Bachelor of Commerce
  • L3001 Bachelor of Laws (Honours)
  • S2000 Bachelor of Science.

This will lead to the award of two degrees, the Bachelor of Global Studies and the degree awarded by the partner course. The requirements for the award of the Bachelor of Global Studies degree are the same whether the award is earned through a single or double degree course. Students should refer to the course entry for the partner course and the course mapcourse map (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2019handbooks/maps/) for the double degree for the requirements of the other degree.

Specialisations

Cultural competence

This is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary field that fosters leadership in intercultural awareness. A critical component of this specialisation is language learning. Language is studied as a critical site of cultural interaction and negotiation, conflict and cooperation. Students can begin, or further their studies, in Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean or Spanish.

Human rights

Human rights is an interdisciplinary specialisation, examining the history and the nature of human rights and addressing basic issues such as: What are human rights? Are human rights culturally relative? How can human rights be justified? You will examine how these issues relate to pressing practical problems, for instance, how an understanding of human rights helps to address issues such as global poverty, unequal access to medicine, refugees, terrorism, warfare, children's rights, humanitarian intervention, torture, surveillance and more.

International relations

This is a discipline that examines the dynamics of global politics and economics, including the relationships between political institutions, international organisations, governmental and non-governmental players. It uses evidence-based explanations to study war/conflict, development, financial, and other crises at the global level.

International studies

International Studies examines the origins, processes and contestations of globalisation in the contemporary world. Ordinary people's experiences and responses to global integration are at the centre of our inquiry. It examines how local communities around the world embrace but also challenge aspects of globalisation, in four interlocking spheres of the human condition:

  • Global health and disease
  • Environment, cities and sustainability
  • Crisis, conflict and disaster
  • Commerce, technology and consumption

Global health and disease

The ways in which people experience good health or disease are increasingly influenced by global factors, such as the growing movement of people and animals, the spread of pollution and pathogens, the development of new medical technologies and treatments, and international institutions that coordinate health and security responses to disease outbreaks. Where and how people live and die - local matters - determines their access to primary healthcare, so an understanding of culture, global wealth distribution, and development is an essential component to studying global health and disease in this stream.

Environment, cities and sustainability

By the end of this century, the majority of the world's population will live in cities. Meanwhile, climate change is in progress, and the way we live within our natural and built ecosystems, among people and with animals, is inherently interconnected and subject to new pressures. This stream focuses on the impacts of a changing environment in an increasingly urbanised world. It provides students with the means to critically examine ways in which a more sustainable mode of living on the planet are being devised by researchers in a range of disciplines, and why the humanities and social sciences bring an important set of analytical skills to understanding the challenges of sustaining a just, prosperous life for all on the planet.

Crisis, conflict and disaster

Crises in our contemporary world take many forms - in the movement and displacement of people, discrimination, poverty and injustice, violence and suffering. War and political conflict, pollution and exploitation, natural and industrial disasters, and biological catastrophes like pandemic disease outbreaks, are among the many topics examined here. This stream brings these realms of human experience, as well as the increasingly internationalised responses to them, together in one stream to examine the causes and consequences of global crises.

Commerce, technology and consumption

Global trade, the production and consumption of commodities and culture, and the uptake of new technologies are among the primary ways that ordinary people experience and are drawn into globalisation. Flows of trade, money, ideas, entertainments and people are fundamental to an integrated world, and yet are also basic to how questions of justice, development and difference are negotiated and disputed. The tensions between the agency of individuals and the power of commercial and corporate entities - and between the local and the global - are core queries we pursue in this stream.

Outcomes

These course outcomes are aligned with the Australian Qualifications Framework level 7 and Monash Graduate AttributesAustralian Qualifications Framework level 7 and Monash Graduate Attributes (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/alignmentofoutcomes.html).

Upon successful completion of this course it is expected that you will be able to:

  1. identify, define and describe key global challenges
  2. apply knowledge about key global challenges to understand and examine different global contexts
  3. compare and contrast a range of solutions to global challenges in different historical, linguistic and geographical settings
  4. demonstrate sophisticated knowledge of models of leadership and social change
  5. construct and communicate new understandings and practical innovative approaches to global challenges.

Overseas study costs

This course includes a compulsory overseas study component. There are a range of study abroad options and students should refer to the faculty's study overseasstudy overseas (http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/study-overseas/) webpage for more information including additional costs, as well as opportunities for funding.

(The faculty's Global Scholars ProgramGlobal Scholars Program (http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/study-overseas/global-scholars-program/) also provides eligible students with financial assistance for the costs associated with overseas studies).

Structure

The course develops through two themes, which will provide you with interdisciplinary approaches to addressing the key challenges facing the global community and in-depth expertise in your specialised area of study to enable you to effect change.

Part A. Leadership, culture and globalisation

You will compare and contrast a range of solutions in different historical, linguistic, cultural, and geographical settings, focussing especially on developing an understanding of effective leadership across a range of contexts to formulate practical and innovative approaches to global challenges.

Part B. Global studies specialist knowledge

These units will provide in-depth knowledge of the specific facet of global studies that comprises your specialisation, providing you with the practical and theoretical skills and knowledge needed to critically analyse, communicate and apply your disciplinary knowledge.

Part C. Free elective study

Electives will enable you to further develop your knowledge in the area of global studies, or arts more generally, or to select units from across the faculty or the University in which you are eligible to enrol.

Requirements

The course comprises 144 points, of which 96 points are global studies and 48 points are free electives.

The course develops through theme studies in Part A. Leadership, culture and globalisation and Part B. Global studies specialist knowledge.

Elective units may be at any level, however, no more than ten units (60 points) can be credited to the global studies course at level 1 and a minimum of 36 points must be completed at level 3, of which four must be from the specialisation. It is recommended that you complete level 1 sequences first as these lay the foundation for further study.

A minimum of 18 points must be chosen for study abroad from either the units listed under your chosen specialisation or at an overseas partner institution.

If you are completing a double degree you must complete no more than six level 1 arts units (36 points) and at least 36 points at level 3 of which at least 24 points must be arts units.

The course progression mapcourse progression map (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2019handbooks/maps/map-a2001.pdf) provides guidance on unit enrolment for each semester of study.

Units are 6 points unless otherwise stated.

Part A. Leadership, culture and globalisation (24 points)

You must complete:

  • ATS1020 Leadership for social change 1
  • ATS2086 Leadership for social change 2
  • ATS3111 Leadership for social change 3 (12 points) or ATS3938 Leadership for social change 3 (overseas intensive) (12 points)

Part B. Global studies specialist knowledge (72 points)

You must complete core and elective units in one of the following specialisations:

Part C. Free elective study (48 points)

Elective units may be chosen from the faculty or across the University as long as you have the prerequisites and there are no restrictions on admission to the units. The units may be at any level, however, no more than ten units (60 points) at level 1 can be credited to the Bachelor of Global Studies.

Units from the elective lists for the specialisations in this course and those listed below are recommended, as are any remaining cornerstone or capstone units from any of the specialisations. If you are not completing the specialisation in global cultural literacies, a language major (48 points) or minor (24 points) from those listed in A2000 Bachelor of Arts is recommended.

Free electives can be identified using the browse unitsbrowse units (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/units/search) tool and indexes of unitsindexes of units (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/units/) in the current edition of the Handbook. The level of the unit is indicated by the first number in the unit code; undergraduate units are those that commence with the numbers 1-3. You may need permission from the owning faculty to enrol in some units taught by other faculties.

If you are in a double degree course, some units required for the other degree are credited as electives towards the global studies degree.

Recommended electives

  • ATS1250 Social justice and Indigenous Australians
  • ATS1254 Culture, power and difference: Indigeneity and Australian identity
  • ATS1255 Encountering cultures: Introduction to anthropology 1
  • ATS1321 Nations at war: The twentieth century
  • ATS2020Not offered in 2019/ATS3020Not offered in 2019 Colonialism in comparison: Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific
  • ATS2250Not offered in 2019 Communications and cultures in the global era
  • ATS2334Not offered in 2019 Human rights discourse: A practical and conceptual history
  • ATS2355 Race and power: Imaging Indigenous Australia
  • ATS2358 Contesting Laws: Heritage, culture and land
  • ATS2551Not offered in 2019 Writing resistance: Understanding the power of Indigenous story-telling through literature
  • ATS2716 Cultural diversity and identity
  • ATS2946 Critical thinking: How to analyse arguments and improve your reasoning skills
  • ATS2992 Global immersion guarantee program
  • ATS3129 Arts internship
  • ATS3399 The politics of identity
  • ATS3933 The meaning of things: Writing cultural history
International study tours
Domestic field trips

Alternative exits

If you are unable to complete the required period of study overseas you can graduate with a Bachelor of Arts providing you have completed 144 credit points of study including all of the requirements in Part A, B and C for the Bachelor of Global Studies degree with a minor in global studies and a major in one of international relations, international studies or language studies.

Progression to further studies

Successfully completion of this course may provide a pathway to a one year honours program leading to A3701 Bachelor of Arts (Honours). To be eligible to apply for entry into the Bachelor of Arts (Honours), you must obtain a distinction grade average (70%) or above in 24 points of studies in relevant units at level 3, which will normally include at least 24 points of units in the chosen honours discipline.