Institute of Land and Food Resources : Guide to courses

14. Bachelor of Agriculture/Bachelor of Commerce

Table of Contents

 14. Bachelor of Agriculture/Bachelor of Commerce

This combined course is taught at the Parkville campus of the university. The course takes five years of full-time study.

This course has been developed in response to the demand for agriculture to be combined with a more specialist training in economics and commerce than is currently possible in the BAg degree. Students can choose a combination of economics, econometrics, accounting, finance and management subjects in order to design a course which fits an intended career path.

 14.1. Course objectives

Students who complete this course will have acquired:

• an understanding of the components of the agricultural sector of the Australian economy and the importance of that sector to the economy;

• an understanding of Australian economic institutions and policy, including industry and trade policy;

• an appreciation of the recent changes in the Australian economy, especially in relation to developments in the Asia-Pacific region;

• mastery of the necessary theoretical concepts and tools, from economics, agricultural sciences, business management and marketing, for analysing and solving problems in agribusiness activities in normal resource use or agricultural policy, and are skilled in communicating the results;

• an appreciation of the implications for agricultural business operations of the biological nature of agricultural production processes;

• awareness of the institutional and regulatory environment within which agricultural businesses function;

• an understanding of the behaviour of international markets for the products of the agricultural sector;

• practical experience in some part of the agricultural sector.

 14.2. Career opportunities

The combined degree offers careers for people wanting to work in any of the agricultural fields, combined with specialist training in economics and commerce, rural finance, international trade, extension work, marketing, journalism, and resource management.

 14.3. Course outline

To be eligible to graduate students must obtain 500 credit points. Of these, 225 must be from the Bachelor of Agriculture and 200 from the Bachelor of Commerce and 75 are electives that students can choose from either faculties, or another faculty.

Agriculture points must include:

• nine out of 11 Institute core subjects including 50 credit Industry Research project (Economics of Resource Use, Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis not required)

• six additional agricultural degree subjects (may include additional chemistry, biochemistry if desired)

• 12 weeks of compulsory work experience - 202-001 Work Experience

Commerce points must include:

• at least 50 points from 100 level subjects

• at least 50 points from 300 level subjects

• compulsory subjects: 316-101 Introductory Macroeconomics, 316-102 Introductory Microeconomics, 316-130 Quantitative Methods 1 and 316-205 Introductory Econometrics or 316-206 Quantitive Methods 2.

A typical combined degree structure is as follows:

First year
Semester 1		Points
	202-101 Chemistry for Land and Food Resources	12.5
	202-103 Biology for Land and Food Resources	12.5
	202-106 Land Resources	12.5
	316-102 Introductory Microeconomics	12.5
Semester 2
	316-101 Introductory Macroeconomics	12.5
	316-130 Quantitative Methods 1	12.5
	610-142 Chemistry	12.5
	202-104 Information Technology and Communication	12.5
	Sub total	100.0

Second year
	202-201 Plant Function	12.5
	204-101 Farm Animal Biology	12.5
	209-202 Financial Management for Resource Ind I	12.5
	316-201 Intermediate Macroeconomics1	12.5
	One of:
	316-205 Introductory Econometrics or	12.5
	316-206 Quantitative Methods 2	12.5
Elective subjects
	Three commerce electives	37.5
	Sub total	100.0

Third year
	202-203 Soil and Water Resources	12.5
	204-201 Comparative Nutrition	12.5
	316-316 Basic Econometrics1	12.5
	521-211 Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Part A	12.5
Elective subjects
	Three commerce electives	37.5
	One elective	12.5
	Sub total	100.0

Fourth year
	202-302 Human Resource Management	12.5
	209-201 Resource Industry Economics I	12.5
	or
	209-301 Agricultural Marketing	12.5
Elective subjects
	Four commerce electives	50.0
	Two electives	25.0
	Sub total	100.0

Year 5
	202-401 Industry/Research Project	50
	209-403 Resource Industry Economics II	12.5
	or
	209-404 Agricultural Policy&International Trade	12.5
Elective subjects
	Three electives	37.5
	Sub total	100.0

Status:                   Official 2001
Last Modified:            Wednesday May 23 22:25
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Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au