Course Structure:

To satisfy the requirements of the award, you must complete 24 units (144 units of credit) as outlined below:

4 core units (listed below):

• BUSN11016 Introduction to Study and Professional Practice 
• COMM11108 Communicating for Social Change
• SUST11001 The Changing World and Sustainability
• BUSN13004 Professional Business Practice and Experience

2 majors totalling 16 units (from those listed below):

• Creative Writing
• English and Cultural Studies
• Geography
• History and Politics
• Journalism
• Liberal Arts
• Public Relations
• Theatre Studies
• Visual Arts.

PLUS 1 minor totalling 4 units (from those listed below):

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• Digital Storytelling
• Discovering Theatre
• Environmental Management
• Essential Geography
• Liberal Arts
• Literary Studies
• Strategic Communication
• Visual Art Practices
• Working with the Media
• World History
• Writing Stories.

NOTE: No more than twelve Level 1 units out of the 24 units may be credited toward the degree.

A unique feature of the Creative Writing major is that it provides you with the chance to write a sustained creative writing dissertation of any genre over the course of your final year. This feature makes the Creative Writing major an invaluable pathway for those students interested in the Master of Letters course where, as a prospective student, you could acquire some credit. 

Do you have a passion for writing? Are you a budding poet or writer? Do you love writing short stories and poems? Our Creative Writing major offers you the chance to develop the skills and knowledge you'll need as a writer in the digital age. You will develop a tool kit of writing styles and genres, including traditional fiction, non-fiction, poetry and scriptwriting, as well as experimental and hybrid genres such as speculative fiction, flash fiction, lyric essays, docufiction, and concrete poetry, among others. This major also encourages you to explore the vast array of opportunities that technology provides the creative writer in creating 'born digital' works.

The English and Cultural Studies major brings together two distinct but complementary disciplinary approaches: literary studies, where literature is read for its own sake and for the values it reveals in stories, poems and plays about our lived and imaginary experiences; and cultural studies, where ideas and concepts derived from a broad study of culture are explored through a variety of texts including film, media, television, advertising and the like. You will be able to demonstrate advanced reading and writing skills while applying critical thinking and advanced modes of textual analysis to a broad range of texts, genres and media. You will communicate using cogent, discipline-based and context-relevant research and participate, both self-reflexively and ethically, in discipline critical debates.

The Geography major offers a diverse set of units in geography, the environment and related discipline areas such as Geographic Information Systems. You will be exposed to an integrated humanities approach that provides excellent foundational discipline knowledge as well as industry-specific knowledge and skills. You will explore contemporary human geography and environmental issues that will improve approaches to managing the environment. You will develop a unique set of knowledge and skills that are useful in a wide range of careers.

History is both the study of the human past and a method of enquiry that allows us to better understand ourselves and the world around us. It requires the sophisticated use of evidence and argumentation to explain continuity and change over time. The skill sets that you can develop from studying history includes the ability to identify, analyse, contextualise and synthesise information, to interpret and evaluate evidence and scholarly sources, usually with the objective of explaining the causes of the complex historical events that shape our own unique experience.

The Journalism major will prepare you for a career in journalism and/or media relations. You will be introduced to journalism within the broader contextual framework of media industries, and will engage in debates about journalistic practice. You will learn to write news and narrative in a range of journalism genres, employing the associated requirements of research and analysis. You will apply legal and ethical frameworks associated with journalistic practice.

If you select units from the English and Cultural Studies major; Geography major; History and Politics major; and/or from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies minor for the Liberal Arts major, then you cannot take the English and Cultural Studies major; Geography major; History and Politics major; nor the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Essential Geography, Literary Studies and World History minors.

Liberal Arts provides you with an opportunity to design your own major by selecting 8 units (48 units of credit), including no less than four advanced level (Level 2 and 3) units, from the following majors and minors: English and Cultural Studies; Geography; History and Politics; and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. This will allow you the flexibility to pursue a study stream that suits your interests. You must meet the usual pre-requisites and co-requisites for these units.

It is possible to select the Liberal Arts major if you want to transfer credit from another course to the Bachelor of Arts, provided you meet the CQUniversity requirements and are approved for transfer of credit.

You will require the approval of the Head of Course to enrol in the Liberal Arts major, as well as approval for the choice of units to be included in this major. Please seek advice from the Course Advice Team in the first instance if you want to undertake the Liberal Arts major.

Organisations depend on communication professionals to devise and implement strategies to create and maintain positive relationships with stakeholders. Public Relations roles are diverse. You may be employed in the areas of employee relations, reputation and crisis management, media, content management, event management, communication strategy, and product development, as examples. Public Relations professionals work in community, non-profit, government and corporate sectors. In this major, you will learn to communicate effectively within an organisational environment. You will work on real-world scenarios and with real clients.

The Theatre Studies major involves the study of theatre through the ages. Study areas include medieval theatre, commedia dell'arte, Shakespeare and modernism as well as a range of contemporary Australian and international theatre plays and practice. You will learn about traditions and methods while developing your own creative practice and understanding of the power of theatre. The skills sets that you can develop from Theatre Studies include the ability to identify, analyse, contextualise and synthesise the dramatic form within its time-specific context.

Creating visual art enables self-expression and self-exploration, but it also has an important social function. As crafted acts of public communication, visual artworks help us all to understand ourselves and our relationship with the world. Contemporary visual art practices are often motivated by forms of social engagement. Through studying the visual arts, you will learn to shape creative thinking skills into a unique process to create engaging and relevant artworks for public display. You will also hone your critical thinking skills to analyse how culture impacts us as individuals, whilst developing skills to professionally interact with arts infrastructure.

In this minor, you will engage with colonialism taking you into the national context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and perspectives in interface with non-Indigenous power and authority. You are enabled to make connections to the international global and colonial context. You will develop skill sets to critically investigate, argue and interpret issues around identity, nationalism and power, and to question issues and approaches that purport to be about ‘reconciliation’. You develop into a critical and ethical thinker enabled to be a transformative citizen skilled in the struggle for social justice.

The Digital Storytelling minor needs to be studied over two successive years.

Year 1
MMST11009 Digital Video and Audio (no prereq)
MMST11003 Visual Design Fundamentals (no prereq)

Year 2
DGTL12014 Documentary Filmmaking (prereq MMST11009)
DGTL13008 Visual Storytelling (prereq MMST11009)

The initial units of study in this minor introduce you to fundamental skills in visual design and digital video production. Subsequent units cover narrative and documentary film-making techniques. By engaging with activities that integrate practical skills and conceptual understanding, you will learn how to produce visual content for a range of contexts within the digital media industries.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the Theatre Studies major.

The Discovering Theatre minor provides a broad scope exploration of theatre connected to the contemporary context. Study areas include musical theatre and Australian drama. Additionally, there is an exploration of the origins of theatre through a study of ancient drama. The minor is rounded out with a study of comedy in theatre looking at its evolution in contemporary forms of theatre. You will learn about the traditions and methods of styles of theatre and develop an understanding of the power of theatre.

The Environmental Management minor provides you with employable skills. You will learn the big picture around why an organisation needs an environmental conscience. You will debate the key issues of the Anthropocene and the international context to Australian Government environmental legislation. You will then go on and develop essential skills to help any organisation live up to its environmental license to operate – finding your way around environmental policy, environmental management systems and impact assessment.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the Geography major.

The heart of geography is earth system exploration at the intersection of place, space and people. With geography, you ponder this new age of the Anthropocene and how population impacts the circulatory systems of the earth that make life possible. The Essential Geography minor provides you with the context for critical thinking wherever employment opportunities take you. You will gain an appreciation of key questions for urban environments, rural landscapes and natural hazards within the architecture of the earth system.

It is possible to select the Liberal Arts minor if you want to transfer credit from another course to the Bachelor of Arts, or to transfer credit for units studied as part of an international study experience, provided you meet the CQUniversity requirements and are approved for this transfer of credit.

You will require the approval of the Head of Course to enrol in the Liberal Arts minor, as well as approval for the choice of units to be included in this minor.

Please seek advice from the Course Advice Team in the first instance if you want to undertake the Liberal Arts minor.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the English and Cultural Studies major.

The Literary Studies minor provides you with an opportunity to explore a selection of literature for the ideas explored, and the values revealed about our lived and imaginary experiences. You will be introduced to discipline critical debates. You will develop advanced reading skills by writing about what you are reading. And you will learn how to analyse texts across a range of genres.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the Public Relations major.

Strategic Communication is about using communication techniques with purpose. This minor shows you how to craft a message for a specific audience to ensure the message is received as intended and can be acted upon. Techniques in this minor are drawn from the public relations discipline and combined with fundamental writing skills.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the Visual Arts major.

Creating visual art enables self-expression and self-exploration, but it also has an important social function. As crafted acts of public communication, visual artworks help us all to understand ourselves and our relationship with the world. Through studying the Visual Art Practices minor, you will learn a combination of traditional skills and contemporary ways of thinking relevant to the design and manufacture of contemporary visual artworks. In this minor, you will work in a studio, think critically and engage creative processes to develop a portfolio of your own contemporary artworks.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the Journalism major.

This minor will introduce you to the world of media, from traditional journalists who may write a story in a newspaper, to the role of the citizen journalist posting footage from their mobile device to social media. You will learn about how the media operate, what they want and what makes the news. This minor will prepare you to be at the receiving end of a media inquiry, as well as how to create your own news articles for publication.

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the History and Politics major.

The World History minor uses the survey history approach to introduce you to some world histories, including ancient, medieval, modern and the twentieth-century eras. You will explore the major transformations of our past to gain knowledge of what motivated these changes. You will gain skills in using historical evidence to articulate well rounded and convincing arguments for key questions. This minor also includes a unit on Australia's environmental history, where you will explore the nexus between the human world and the physical environment and look at changes over time.  

You cannot enrol in this minor if you are enrolled in the Creative Writing major.

Calling all storytellers .... we want you! In the Writing Stories minor, you will develop and refine your skills in writing engaging works for different audiences and markets. You will learn to think critically about writing and be able to produce narratives in fiction and non-fiction. The Writing Stories minor also offers you the chance to practice the art of telling compelling tales by experimenting with various forms and genres.