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Faculty of Arts : Guide to courses
An ordinary BA degree requires the completion of:
300 points of study with a minimum of 75 points (usually six subjects) and a maximum of 125 points (usually 10 subjects) at each year level
Students usually complete 100 points at each of First, Second and Third Year levels, that is, eight subjects in each year, four subjects (50 points) per semester.
Aside from the completion of 300 points of BA study, three further basic rules apply:
year-level entry requirements (see Year level entry requirements)
breadth of study requirements (see Breadth of study requirements)
an Arts-approved subject requirement (see Arts-approved subject requirement)
The points value of a subject depends on its year level, length and the workload involved. A standard single semester subject is usually worth 12.5 points. Students usually complete four subjects (50 points) in each semester of study.
Some single semester subjects offered at Third Year and at Third/Fourth Year are worth 25 points. Preparation and assessment for these subjects will involve twice the workload of an ordinary 12.5 point subject.
Some language study requires the completion of a 12.5 point subject and an additional 6.25 point corequisite subject, amounting to 18.75 points of study in each semester. In such cases, two semesters of language study are equivalent to three semesters of non-language study (i.e. 2 x 12.5 points + 2 x 6.25 points = 3 x 12.5 points). See Language study for more details about language study.
Each subject entry in this handbook details that subject's availability, that is, the year level to which it can be credited. Subjects are usually offered at the following year levels:
First Year only
Second/Third Year
Third Year only
Third/Fourth Year
Fourth Year only.
Some language subjects are also offered at:
First and Second Year;
First, Second and Third Year.
Students must complete at least six subjects (75 points) at each year level, and cannot complete more than 10 subjects (125 points) at any year level.
The following rules apply for entry into Second/Third Year subjects, Third/Fourth Year subjects, and Fourth Year subjects.
Students usually complete at least 50 points of First Year (four subjects) in order to enrol in a Second/Third Year subject.
Students must complete at least 37.5 points of Second/Third Year study (usually 3 subjects) in order to enrol in a Third/Fourth Year subject.
Students must meet the conditions of entry to Honours in order to enrol in a Fourth Year Honours subject. All Fourth Year subjects are Honours subjects.
Entry into some First Year subjects and most Second and Third Year subjects requires the successful completion of specified prior (prerequisite) study in the relevant area. For example, some streams of language require the completion of VCE language study.
Because subjects offered at Second and Third Year are designed to build on study completed at First Year, they generally have prerequisite requirements. The prerequisite for entry to Second/Third Year in any given area of study is usually 25 points of First Year study in that area, though many exceptions to this rule apply.
Students will find detailed information about prerequisites in each area of study in the introduction in this handbook. In addition, each separate subject entry provides prerequisite details which either repeat the area of study's prerequisite information as it applies to that subject or specifies the particular prior study requirements for enrolment in that subject.
Some subjects (for example some languages) require concurrent enrolment in another subject with related content (a corequisite subject).
When choosing your subjects, you should be aware that in order to encourage you to study widely, there are limitations to the number of points you can complete in any single area of study over each year level. They are:
A maximum of 50 points (usually four subjects) in any one area of study
A maximum of 175 points (usually 14 subjects) in any one area of study
The BA degree requires that you complete a minimum number of points in Arts-approved subjects.
All of the subjects offered by departments and schools within the Faculty of Arts are Arts approved. Some areas of study which may be taken in the BA, however, are offered by other faculties within the University or other institutions, and in these cases only some, or sometimes, none of the subjects on offer are officially Arts approved.
Of the 300 points required for the BA degree, at least 150 points must be in Arts-approved subjects. They must be distributed as follows:
At least 50 points of Arts-approved subjects
At least 100 points of Arts-approved subjects
All language subjects are Arts approved (see Language table). The Arts areas of study table (Arts areas of study table) indicates which other areas of study offer Arts-approved subjects.
Provided they meet the degree's Arts-approved subject requirement, BA students are able to study, and in some cases to complete a Major, in selected areas of study offered by other faculties within the University. These are:
Students should note that only a restricted selection of subjects within these areas of study is available for credit towards the BA. In some cases a three year sequence of study is available, while others are limited to First Year study only.
Consult the Arts areas of study table (Arts areas of study table) for the study possibilities within the above listed areas of study. For details of the particular subjects that are available to Arts students, refer to the relevant area of study entries in the Arts section of this handbook.
On rare occasions, permission is granted for study from non-Arts areas of study other than those listed above. Students requesting such permission must have an excellent academic record and strong academic reasons to take subjects from outside the standard Arts program.
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