Thinking of pursuing a Bachelor of Arts at ANU, but want to know what it’s really like to study the degree?
Meet Rebecca, who just graduated from ANU! She will provide an overview of the reality of studying a Bachelor of Arts, including the best and worst parts of the degree, what differentiates ANU from other Arts courses locally on offer, and what she wished she knew before she started studying there, and more.
Let’s dive in!
Why should you study an Arts degree at ANU?
Top 3 Pros of an Arts Degree
Top 3 Cons of an Arts Degree
Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
What Makes this Degree Different
Motivations for Studying ANU Arts
Potential Career Paths
Why should you study a Bachelor of Arts at ANU?
A Bachelor of Arts at ANU will equip you with a range of humanities based knowledge and skills, depending on your major. If you previously enjoyed humanities subjects in high school, and want a degree in which you can flexibly tailor your learning experience, then Arts at ANU is for you!
In addition, ANU boasts a positive and enriching community of individuals with shared interests, and many societies and activities that students can get involved in during their free time, such as its Arts Review and the Student Magazine Woroni.
Top 3 Pros of an Arts degree
#1: Great academics and tutors
Located in the Australian Capital Territory with connections to Parliament House, ANU and its Arts degree are especially regarded for its politics, history, international relations, security, and various international studies courses and faculties (e.g. Chinese studies, Pacific studies). ANU is particularly focussed on global and current issues!
#2: Good selection of electives
Rebecca says that a Bachelor of Arts at ANU provides you with a broad, rich selection of electives, enabling you to augment your major/s or minors with supplementary study. Typically, in addition to their major, students will have space left over to either study a minor (a total of 24 credit points, or 4 subjects), a second major (48 units), or complete electives of their choice.
One of the standout elective courses that you may study in a Bachelor of Arts include Theories of Social Justice, which applies philosophical frameworks to contemporary and past social justice action and movements such as protesting against climate change.
#3: Study abroad
Rebecca says a Bachelor of Arts at ANU offers you many opportunities to study overseas. ANU offers exchange to students who have completed 48 credit points of study, or roughly a year, at a variety of top universities and locations around the world in Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
For a full list of these, you can check out their exchange page here!
Certain courses in a Bachelor of Arts may offer specialised overseas study programs. For example, Arts students majoring in Environmental Studies have the opportunity to partake in overseas field trips to locations like Fiji, Vietnam and Myanmar and learn about sustainable development, tourism, extreme weather management, and the effects of climate change in the real world (usually in the Pacific, where ANU has stronger ties). This typically occurs in the third year!
Top 3 Cons of an Arts degree
#1: Limited electives for double degrees
“In a double degree you have less electives than a single,” says Rebecca. Indeed, double degrees are very common among Bachelor of Arts students at ANU, as well as minor/major combinations.
In addition, each major will have certain requirements; usually this involves meeting a certain number of credit points/subjects per semester for your major. Since every major in a BA at ANU requires the completion of 48 credit points, doing two majors can take up whole semesters of your time without any space leftover for electives!
However, it’s recommended that students complete electives in their first year, when the workload for most majors is lighter.
#2: Poor department communication
“Sometimes the departments don’t communicate well across Arts (as it isn’t a single department at ANU),” says Rebecca.
In fact, the nature of ANU (being in the ACT) means it has more specific ‘colleges’, or faculties, than other universities for its International and Political areas of study, such as the colleges of Chinese, Arabic, or National Security.
As a result, the ‘Arts’ sector of the university is fragmented. Clearly though, this specialisation is also a positive for those interested in such subject areas.
#3: Cutting subjects
Rebecca says that due to funding cuts, many Arts subjects have been cut at ANU. Indeed, many universities across the country (including USYD and UNSW) have cut their Arts subjects and faculties in response to the economic effects of COVID-19 in 2020, and the shake-up of arts degree prices, with 3-year humanities degrees more than doubling (from about $20,000 to $43,500) while ‘job-relevant’ degree prices have dropped, have impacted the amount of students wanting to take an Arts degree.
This decision has dismayed universities and Arts students alike, however if anything should be a reason to continue supporting the unique education and skill sets provided by university Arts degrees!
Any regrets? What do you wish you had known before starting ANU Arts?
Rebecca says that not taking full advantage of the rich electives available earlier on in her degree are a regret and something she wishes she had known prior. “I wish I did more fun electives instead of economics in my first year,” she shares.
One of the standout electives that Rebecca took in her first year was ASIA 2026: The Politics of China, particularly because ANU is well-known for its School of Asia and the Pacific. This unit is available to all Arts students, and examines the politics of contemporary China, including political life, and major conceptual challenges and debates facing China’s political sphere today.
Other noteworthy elective units that a first-year Arts student at ANU might consider (that Rebecca did not take) are:
- POLS1005 Introduction to International Relations: Foundations and Concepts — International relations as an area of study encompasses the political, military, economic, and cultural interaction of state and non-state actors at the global level. This unit will provide you with the basic concepts of the field, with topics including the causes of war, the environment, and politics development.
- PHIL1004 Fundamental Ideas in Philosophy: An Introduction — In this unit, students learn how to “do philosophy” by exploring some of the central problems of Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, with a particular focus on how they approach the question of human existence.
- HIST1209 Terror to Terrorism: A History — This unit examines the modern history of terror, terrorism and counter-terrorism, beginning with the birth of modern revolutionary ‘terrorism’ in Revolutionary France, and exploring its metamorphosis since the 18th century. In this study, it incorporates political concepts including anarchism and nationalism, and analyses the way terror remains seemingly ubiquitous today.
- LING1001 Introduction to the Study of Language — This unit provides students with a conceptual framework of language, including how it can be described and analysed, how human languages differ or resemble one another, and aids you in the acquisition of a second language!
What makes this degree different from the ones offered at other universities?
Rebecca says “the breadth of subject matter you can do in an Arts degree” is what differentiates a Bachelor of Arts at ANU from other universities. “I turned up to uni in O-week having no idea what subjects I had to choose, so I didn’t really think about it,” she explains.
Once you have met the program requirements of your degree, you may have enough electives to complete an additional elective major, minor or specialisation. The options can range from Archaeology to Gender Studies, Political Science, Heritage and Museum Studies, Popular Music, Latin, Greek, Persian, Sanskrit, or any of a number of niche subject areas that are not on offer at other universities like USYD, UTS, UNSW or Macquarie.
What inspired you to choose ANU Arts?
“Arts at ANU covers a very wide variety of areas from art history to environmental studies to security studies. There is a lot to choose from and it’s easy to shift your interest!” Rebecca highlights.
Additionally, because a Bachelor of Arts at ANU (and most universities) allows you to try out a range of different electives, students will naturally gain skills in a broad range of areas no matter what their major is.
What are the possible career paths?
A Bachelor of Arts at ANU will open you up to a great variety of career paths depending on the major you choose. Fields that graduates may later work in include:
- Publishing
- Policy
- Education
- International development
- Politics
- Media
- Information technology
- Communications
- Journalism
- Advertising
- Art conservation
- Government
Trying to find inspo for your HSC Visual Arts Major Work?? Here’s some tips we have to get started!
Zara Zadro is a Content Writer for Art of Smart and a current undergraduate student at the University of Sydney. She studies a Bachelor of Arts/Advanced Studies majoring in Media & Communications and English. In her free time, she enjoys reading, listening to music and discovering new parts of Sydney. She has also written for the student publications Honi Soit and Vertigo. After she graduates, Zara hopes to do a Masters in creative writing and live overseas, which she cannot wait for!
