Wondering whether a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni would be right for you?
Well, you’ve come to the perfect place!
We’ve put together everything you need to know about the units, culture, assessments and what it’s really like to study a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie University.
Let’s get started!
What is a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni?
Core Units and Majors
How to Get into a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni
What’s the Teaching Format?
What’s the Faculty and Culture Like?
What is a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni?
The great thing about the Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni is that the degree can really be whatever you want it to be!
You’ll have the opportunity to tailor the course to your interests and goals with more than 50 majors to choose from. You can even choose to study two majors if you want to broaden your knowledge or if you’re just having a hard time specialising.
Essentially, as an Arts student you’ll be positioned within the broad field of social sciences and humanities where you’ll be learning about identity, societies and what it means to be human. All very relevant topics!
You’ll develop advanced analysis, creativity, critical thinking, communication and intercultural awareness skills that are essential in today’s society.
Can you study this degree in conjunction with another?
Definitely! A double degree with a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni is a popular choice for students who want to fast-track their learning, increase career flexibility, enhance employability or for those who are just having trouble specialising in a single degree.
While there is definitely no requirement to study a double degree with Arts, because it would be a lot more work, Macquarie does offer a range of combinations for those keen on expanding their skillset and gaining a competitive edge. Some of the degrees that you can study concurrently with a Bachelor of Arts include:
You’ve got a lot of options. So, if you’re keen on graduating with a double degree, studying a Bachelor of Arts may be something to look into.
Career Paths
As we’ve mentioned, a Bachelor of Arts is an incredibly broad degree and your course will be very dependent on the major that you choose to pursue. An Arts degree can prep you for a variety of career paths that will often differ for each graduate.
Here are a few examples:
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- Criminologist
- Archivist
- Arts manager
- Communications officer
- Entrepreneur
- Historian
- Legal officer
- Journalist
- Radio producer
- Television or film producer
- Writer
- Web/game developer
See! The world is your oyster!
You’ll have an endless amount of career opportunities as an Arts graduate. You could even commit to some further studies and look into becoming a teacher, interpreter or translator.
Core Units and Majors
To successfully graduate from a Bachelor of Arts degree at Macquarie Uni, you’ll need to have completed a few required subjects. Although throughout most of your program you’ll have the flexibility to choose the kinds of subjects that you’d like to take.
A Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie is made up of 240 credit points — credit points are used to measure the workload of a particular subject. At Macquarie, most subjects are worth 10 credit points each, so overall you’ll be completing 24 subjects throughout your degree.
What is the Core Zone and the Flexible Zone?
Your units at Macquarie Uni are divided between 2 main areas: the Core Zone and the Flexible Zone.
The Core Zone is the area in which most of your main subjects are completed. You’ll complete your 2 essential units, a required elective subject and a capstone unit. Alongside these, you’re required to complete either an international exchange program or you can choose to study a minor (a smaller version of your major).
Your Flexible Zone comprises 80 credit points worth of electives. In this component, you can either choose to enrol in 8 electives or you can choose to complete a second major alongside your first. So if you’ve ever worried about not having enough options or flexibility, then this may be the perfect course for you!
First Year Core Units
Since the Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie can be personalised to suit your interests, we’ll go through the core subjects that you’ll be required to do in your first year:
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- Humanities and the World: In this subject, you’ll be learning about the human condition within society. You’ll develop your understanding of the historical, personal, societal and moral forces at play that impact and influence the connections within different communities.
- Critical Thinking: In this introductory unit, you’ll learn about the foundations of critical thinking and reasoning. You’ll discover the ways in which we construct, analyse and critically evaluate arguments.
If you’d like to take a deeper look at your subjects, you can check out Macquarie’s Handbook!
What are the Majors?
Macquarie Uni offers a huge amount of majors to their Bachelor of Arts students. A major at Macquarie is worth 80 credit points — so it makes up a substantial part of your course!
Again, this gives you the chance to specialise your very broad degree. Amazingly, you’ll have the opportunity to select your major from a whopping list of 50 choices!
Also remember that if you aren’t interested in completing an exchange opportunity, you can pick a second major as well! Here are some that you can choose from:
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- Ancient History
- Modern History
- Criminology
- Creative Writing
- English
- Geography
- Politics
- Social Justice
- Music Studies
- German Studies
- International Relations
- Media, Culture and Communications
- Indigenous Studies
We told you there’s a lot!
Is there a built-in Internship program?
At Macquarie, students are encouraged to take PACE units. Macquarie University’s PACE (Professional and Community Engagement) is an initiative offered to undergraduate students so that they can engage and participate in local, regional and international organisations!
These inbuilt career programs allow students to work with Macquarie’s industry partners and provide relevant and practical experience.
How to Get into a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni
To be guaranteed entry into a Bachelor of Arts program at Macquarie Uni, you’ll need to achieve a minimum ATAR of 75.
If you haven’t quite gotten the required ATAR, there is no need to stress! Macquarie understands that your abilities go beyond and HSC mark so there are plenty of other options.
To make things a little easier for you, Macquarie has created an entry program navigator so that you’re able to compare your alternative admission options to work out which one best suits you!
You can take a look at the alternative admission pathways that you may be eligible for here.
Early Entry
Macquarie Uni is known to give some pretty generous early entry offers to HSC students. So, if you’re in Year 12 and already know what you’d like to study at uni or if you’d just like to relieve a bit of stress on results day, you’re bound to find an early entry scheme that suits you.
Often these schemes are based on leadership potential, community engagement or academic excellence in Year 12 or even Year 11!
You can take a look at one of the early entry schemes that Macquarie has on offer here.
Is there any assumed knowledge or prerequisite subjects?
Since the Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie Uni is such a broad degree, there is no assumed knowledge or prerequisite subjects that you need to have done to get into the course.
In saying this, it definitely wouldn’t do you any harm to choose some humanities-based HSC subjects to get more used to the content. Graduating Year 12 in subjects like Advanced English, Modern History, Legal Studies or Society and Culture may give you a little extra confidence in the course. But again, none of these are required!
Scholarships
Macquarie University also offers a range of scholarships to its potential students for a variety of different reasons. Students can be awarded scholarships on the basis of financial hardship, athletic achievement, excellent academic performance or for community engagement.
You can browse some of the scholarships that Macquarie Uni offers right here!
What’s the Teaching Format?
As a Bachelor of Arts student at Macquarie University, you can expect to undertake your studies through a 2 semester system. This means that you’ll be studying your degree in 2 separate sessions each year with pretty long breaks in between.
If you’re hoping to be on track to graduate in 3 years, then you’ll be taking 4 classes or about 40 credit points each semester.
How much time do you spend on campus?
At Macquarie, you’ll be learning and acing your subjects by attending 1 tutorial and 1 lecture a week for each class. Macquarie usually teaches its classes through a 1 hour tutorial and a 2 hour lecture — at the very least, you’ll be spending 12 hours each week on campus.
Alongside the time that you’ll be spending in tutorials and lectures, you should also be looking to spend a few hours consolidating your knowledge and preparing for future classes in your own time. You may want to do this at home or you can revise at Macquarie’s library which is accessible to all students! This way you’ll be able to remain on top of your studies throughout the year.
Class Structure
Lectures
Lectures at Macquarie are generally 2 hours long and you can expect to attend a lecture for every class that you’re currently taking. These will usually involve a lecturer standing up at the front of the theatre discussing the content that is being shown on a powerpoint. This is a great chance for you to take notes but isn’t really appropriate for heaps of questions or class discussions.
You can expect your core subject lectures to have about 200 students in a lecture theatre at a time. However, as you begin to specialise your degree by picking majors, minors and electives, the format and size of lectures tend to differ. Either way, each lecture will normally have around 100 to 200 students in attendance.
Tutorials
As with lectures, you’ll be attending a tutorial for every one of your classes each week. At Macquarie, a tutorial will last about 2 hours and will have around 20 to 30 students in a classroom at a time.
Tutorials are a perfect place to ask questions, participate in class discussions and get to know your peers. Tutorials are far more conversational than lectures and are often more engaging because the tutor will be guiding the class and asking questions throughout.
Tutorials will be a great place to work on your collaborative, confidence and communication skills in group settings.
What are assessments like?
As a Bachelor of Arts student at Macquarie Uni, your assessments will be diverse and extremely dependent on the major that you choose.
For example, you may be creating research portfolios, writing essays or taking quizzes. Sometimes you’ll undergo group work and other times you’ll be working independently.
Skills That You Refine and Learn
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Arts degrees are so broad and cover so many different areas! This means that you’ll be developing an abundance of skills.
Some of these will include:
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- Communication
- Critical thinking
- Research
- Intercultural awareness
- Collaboration
- Problem solving
Since a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie is a degree that’s all about the position of humans and culture within society, you can expect to develop a heightened sense of awareness of who you are, your identity, your interconnectedness with others and your role within society. You’ll develop the critical thinking skills required to make these observations by utilising evidence-based research and analysis methods.
By interacting with your peers and teachers, your communication and collaboration skills will be in constant development.
What’s the Faculty and Culture Like?
As a Bachelor of Arts student at Macquarie Uni, you’ll be fittingly positioned in the Faculty of Arts. Within the Faculty of Arts, you’ll be surrounded by an eager group of individuals with industry experience and professional advice.
Because of the extensive and wide-ranging degree, you’ll be surrounded by students from a variety of different backgrounds and with a lot of different interests. You can be sure of the fact that you’ll meet some great new friends and create life-long networks.
Arts students are a passionate, welcoming and supportive group of people who will ensure that you’re always feeling encouraged and appreciated in your degree.
“From taking part in the internationally awarded Global Leadership Program, being offered the opportunity to go through the Career Accelerator Program and embracing peer mentoring through the LEAP Refugee Mentor Program; I have met a diverse group of people beyond my double degree.” — Annie Renouf
Societies
Macquarie University has a heap of informative, fun and wacky societies on offer. With over 140 student-led clubs, it’ll be easy to find people with similar interests to you.
The best bit is that if there isn’t a society that peaks your interest, you can just make your own!
You can unlock your fun side in the Disney Appreciation or Harry Potter Societies, or you can stick to your arts and humanities roots by becoming a member of the Amnesty International Society, United Nations Association or the Ancient History Club — there’s something for everyone!
You can take a look at Macquarie’s student clubs here!
Resources
‘MultiSearch’ is Macquarie’s main online learning resource which seems to be a total lifesaver when it’s exam season. It is Macquarie’s library search engine that gives you access to past exam papers, journal articles and unit readings.
Macquarie Uni also offers emotional, financial and academic support to all potential students. Whether you’re needing some assistance navigating accessibility services, needing academic advice, looking for Indigenous student support, wanting a little help with your career and employment prospects or even tech help, Macquarie is there to lend a helping hand.
You can look at the student support that Macquarie offers here!
Gemma Billington is a Content Writer at Art of Smart and an undergraduate student at the University of Technology Sydney. While studying Journalism and Social and Political Sciences, Gemma enjoys spending her time at the gym or reading about Britain’s medieval monarchy – ideally not at the same time. She currently creates and administers social media posts for Central News and writes for the student publication, The Comma. After completing her undergraduate degree, she hopes to study a Masters of Medieval History and is very excited about the prospect!
