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Study online through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Bachelor of Arts (OUA) at Macquarie University is a distinctive course that equips its graduates with knowledge and skills that can be applied in any career or in further study. No other course offers as much flexibility and a wide range of study options as the Bachelor of Arts. You will be given the opportunity to turn your passion into a career while developing a strong set of core transferable skills valued by industry and the society. In consultation with industry, the Bachelor of Arts (OUA) places a strong emphasis on skills for success in the 21st century workplace. You will be taught by active researchers, leading academics and award winning teachers.

Make your degree unique and study what interests you. Analyse critically, think creatively and problem-solve at work or in everyday life. Complete foundational studies then tailor your degree with a major. Create a portfolio and build your connections.

Bachelor of Arts

With our flexible Bachelor of Arts, you can choose from a wide range of majors and minors taught by La Trobe&#39;s passionate and committed staff. This flexible degree allows you to pursue your passion and your profession, while keeping your career options open.Shape your own future with this interdisciplinary course. You’ll specialise in at least one area by choosing a major from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), and then explore your interests or build an essential skill by choosing secondary majors, minors and electives from HUSS and select other areas of the University. You’ll graduate with your majors and minors listed on your academic transcript, so future employers can recognise your expertise.Create your own path. Want to major in Sociology, with a second major in Marketing, then take a Creative and Professional Writing subject as an elective? Go for it. Or perhaps you’d like to pair Politics and English? Or Crime, Justice and Legal Studies with Linguistics? Build your own future – we’re here to help you achieve your dream. No matter which path you choose, you’ll learn from world-class academics and leading researchers.In your first year, you’ll explore your interests and passions, trying out subjects from a range of different areas. In your second and third years, you’ll delve deeper while also choosing electives and minors that broaden your skills and knowledge. Studying online offers you the flexibility to complete the degree from wherever you’re based. Throughout your degree, you’ll be well supported by La Trobe’s passionate and committed academics, who are experts in their fields. Many of La Trobe’s online subjects in Humanities and Social Sciences also give you the opportunity to log in to live sessions and engage directly with academics and your fellow students in real time.Gain real-world experience and build valuable connections that will shape your career. Take on an industry placement at organisations like SBS Radio, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre or the United Nations Association of Australia or travel overseas for an international sustainability experience.* Many of our exchange programs are financially supported.The world is waiting for you. Step into it. You’ll learn:<ul><li>Critical thinking<ul><li>Delve into complex problems. Experts say critical thinking will be a highly valued skill in the workforce of tomorrow.**</li></ul></li><li>Emotional intelligence<ul><li>Understand what drives our decisions. Learn how to connect to others with emotion and intelligence.</li></ul></li><li>Creativity<ul><li>Learn how to see new possibilities and turn them into reality.</li></ul></li><li>Communication<ul><li>﻿Learn how to connect, communicate and collaborate with your University peers and future colleagues.</li></ul></li></ul>*Please note: overseas programs may be impacted by travel restrictions.**Forbes, 2019, The 10 Vital Skills You Will Need For The Future Of Work; PwC, 2020, 10 skills you need for future employment

A flexible arts degree offering a large selection of humanities and social sciences majors. Mix it up with minors and electives in business, health, and science. Develop critical thinking, emotional intelligence, creativity, and communication skills.

Start your university adventure with La Trobe’s Diploma of Arts. Choose your own future – we’re here to help you achieve your dreams.Get straight into your passions when you choose a stream and undertake the first year of the humanities and social sciences degree of your choice. Choose from criminology, global studies, media and communication, and more. Or choose from a wide range of electives – from politics and languages to environmental studies and public health – and study all the topics you’re passionate about.Once you’ve graduated, you could transfer into one of our most varied and flexible degrees – the Bachelor of Arts – or choose from a range of specialised programs including,  Bachelor of Archaeology, Bachelor of Criminology, Bachelor of Global Studies, Bachelor of Languages and Linguistics, Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics, the Bachelor of Media and Communication and the Bachelor of Visual Arts.No matter which path you choose, you’ll learn from world-class academics and leading researchers, and you’ll build skills in critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration – highly sought-after skills that are vital in today’s workforce.Get a taste of university life as you study side-by-side Bachelor’s degree students. What’s more, we’ll be with you every step of the way. Receive tailored advice from a dedicated Student Adviser and you can connect with discipline-based peer mentors. We’ll help you enrol, choose your subjects and navigate university systems and requirements. You can also access La Trobe’s Careers Service to help you shape your future. You’ll learn:<ul><li>Critical thinking<ul><li>Delve into complex problems. Experts say critical thinking will be a highly valued skill in the workforce of tomorrow. [1]</li></ul></li><li>Emotional intelligence<ul><li>Understand what drives our decisions. Learn how to connect to others with emotion and intelligence.</li></ul></li><li>Creativity<ul><li>Learn how to see new possibilities and turn them into reality.</li></ul></li><li>Communication<ul><li>Learn how to connect, communicate and collaborate with your university peers and future colleagues.</li></ul></li></ul><a href="https://courseloop.latrobe.edu.au/courseloop/show#_ftnref1" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(228, 35, 18); font-size: 10px;">[1]</a> Forbes, 2019, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/04/29/the-10-vital-skills-you-will-need-for-the-future-of-work/#20a8c5df3f5b" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The 10 Vital Skills You Will Need For The Future Of Work </a>; PwC, 2020, <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/careers/blog/future-employment.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">10 skills you need for future employment</a>

Follow your interests on this humanities pathway into university. Choices range from languages to history, politics, and philosophy. Pick up important skills like critical thinking and collaboration. Shape your future in the arts and social science.

Diploma of Arts

Students in this program will study philosophy and theology from within the Catholic liberal arts tradition, concentrating on the subject’s main themes of “human person” and “the good life”. They will learn to convey why the Church teaches various contemporary moral and social issues. They will investigate about the Catholic tradition of the arts, including painting, sculpture, music, architecture, film, and literature.

Engage with scripture, texts, art, and literature to make Christian sense of philosophy and theology. Think about why the Church teaches what it teaches, and how to apply those teachings to navigate today’s moral and social issues.

Graduate Certificate in Catholic Thought

Knowledge, Individuals and Society

Questions that Matter

Critical Thinking and Innovation

Ethics

This subject was previously known as PHIX137 Critical Thinking.Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 1 or 2 offering.This subject aims to teach the fundamentals of critical thinking and reasoning. Students will learn how to construct, analyse and critically evaluate arguments; how to detect common fallacies in reasoning; and how to think logically and creatively. We teach these skills by developing practical techniques for the evaluation of reasoning, and applying them to arguments from business, law, science, politics, philosophy and the media. Critical thinking skills are invaluable across all disciplines, and will benefit students in academic contexts and in life beyond university.s

Identify methods used to structure arguments. Beware of fallacies and pseudo-arguments. Prepare for discourses on subjects including science, philosophy and law. Sharpen your approach to thinking critically and producing well-reasoned arguments.

Critical Thinking

Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 2 offering.This subject provides an introduction to major topics in ethics, moral theory and contemporary political philosophy. The first section focuses on the nature of happiness. Is pleasure essential to happiness? Or does the pursuit of pleasure harm our chances of lasting fulfilment? Must we be virtuous in order to be happy? What is the relationship between happiness and duty? The second section explores the nature of moral goodness. Is morality based ultimately in self-interest? What is the relationship between morality and religion? Are there moral principles that everyone is bound by reason to recognise? Or is the validity of moral standards relative to specific societies and cultures? In the third section we turn to questions of applied political philosophy, focusing on questions such as: What principles should govern the distribution of economic and social resources within a society? What are the obligations of wealthy nations to those less fortunate, including immigrants and refugees? And what issues of justice are raised by climate change?

Ask questions about the nature of happiness. Address atheism and religion as you deconstruct what it means to be morally good. Question the relationship between politics and justice. Read up on philosophical arguments by Kant and Aristotle.

Happiness, Goodness and Justice

This unit brings a philosophical lens to some of the great social and existential challenges of our times. We examine some of the key sources of existential meaning in human life, such as: personal freedom, identity, work, and a sense of belonging. We look at some of the prevailing ways in which these sources are currently threatened in contemporary society. The unit also considers some concrete ethical and political options for dealing with these challenges. Some examples of questions that may be explored in the unit include: What is the meaning we look for in our lives? Is spiritual belief an important or even a necessary element of human life? How does work fit in our idea of a good life? How can we live well together given our different gender, cultural and ethnic identities?

Social and Existential Questions

Humans are embedded in complex networks of social relations within which norms of practice arise, including ethical and political norms. Sometimes these are formalised (as in medicine and the military) and other times they are informal and part of interpersonal shared conventions (as in gender, race and identity relations). In both informal and formal contexts these norms continually undergo processes of validation, disruption, contestation, re-negotiation and renewal. This unit will apply ethical theory and analysis in exploring a range of contemporary and pressing social questions, each of which is undergoing some form of challenge to its existing and sometimes deeply entrenched norms and conventions. Topics will vary from year to year but include: reproduction, abortion, and ectogenesis; gender pronoun usage; cancel culture; civil disobedience and political protest; physician-assisted suicide and norms of medicine at the end-of-life; conflicts of interest and bias in healthcare contexts; and the justice and ethics of warfare and humanitarian intervention.

Ethical Perspectives on Social Issues

This subject introduces students to a selection of the most pressing ethical questions and concerns raised by current and recent developments in the so-called &#39;biotech revolution&#39;, especially in the sphere of genetic technology. The first section of the unit provides an introduction to ethical reasoning, to issues of social justice and to the relationship between social values, scientific enquiry and research ethics in the context of biotechnology. The second section focuses on the ethics of gene technology in the spheres of human medicine and reproduction, including: genetic screening/testing; gene editig and therapies; genetic enhancement; and human reproductive cloning. In the third section we explore the impact of biotechnologies on other aspects of human, non-human animal and environmental welfare including: genetic engineering of plants and animals (GMOs); biofortification of food; bio-prospecting; and commercial exploitation of human genetic material. The unit is an ethics unit, not a science unit, and prior scientific knowledge is not required.

Bioethics and Biotechnology

This subject was previously known as PHI230, PHIX201 Business and Professional Ethics. Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 1 offering. This unit investigates some of main ethical issues that arise in professional life and from the activities of businesses and corporations. The unit explores the nature and value of work as well as its role in personal identity and social organisation. We also consider the obligations and responsibilities that come with professional work and the management of businesses. We examine the nature of corporations and their responsibilities to individual workers and consumers, stakeholders, groups such as women and minorities, and the environment.

Break down the ethical considerations that can stem from business activities. Firm up your view on a business' social responsibilities. Unpack codes of conduct and whistleblowing. Question the ability of corporations to influence government policies.

Ethics, Business and Work

This subject introduces you to the disciplines of politics, philosophy, and economics (PPE). Develop your knowledge of political institutions and their history. Learn how influential theories think philosophically about justice. Advance your economic understanding of how incentives affect human behaviour. And then apply perspectives from each PPE discipline to analyse topics: trade, economic inequality, environmental degradation, and concepts from educational opportunity. You will then see how each discipline can illuminate very different aspects of a particular problem. You will use PPE perspectives to analyse markets, inequality, environmental degradation, educational opportunity, and discrimination problem, with useful implications for policy-making. This is a core subject for students in La Trobe&#39;s Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), but it is also open and accessible to any student seeking an introduction to these three disciplines, politics, philosophy, and economics) and their intersecting application to real-world challenges. This is a level 1 subject. This subject includes live sessions with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

Politics, Philosophy and Economics

This subject introduces you to key concepts, problems and arguments in ethics. It encourages you to engage with your own thinking about ethics. It therefore asks such questions as: what is the basis of making an ethical decision? Are actions intrinsically right or wrong, or do outcomes matter more than the means of achieving them? Can we, should we, mix and match ethical responses based on different frameworks? Why does it all matter in a world where we often seem to live in an economy rather than a society? By the end of this subject, you will know enough about thinking ethically and living thoughtfully to reflect upon your own position in Australian society and navigate your way through a constantly changing world.

Take a closer look at what it is to think, act and view the world ethically. Learn about universalist, relativist and pluralist thinking. Write a personal ethical statement. Traverse the blurred lines separating facts, beliefs and interpretation.

Thinking Ethically

Think of all the different beliefs you hold about various matters. How many of these, if any, constitute genuine knowledge rather than mere opinion? What does this distinction amount to and why is it important? To what extent do the standards for what counts as knowledge depend on context? Can you know something without knowing that you know it? What makes a belief justified or reasonable? Is it ever reasonable to hold a belief if you have no evidence to support it? What is the value of knowledge in our individual lives and in society? These are some of the central questions in epistemology-- the philosophical study of the nature, extent, and value, of knowledge and justified belief. In this course we will explore these and related questions using both historical and contemporary sources. Epistemological questions crop up absolutely everywhere--i n science, the humanities, politics, religion, and everyday life--and this course will give you the tools to tackle such questions wherever you find them.This is a level 2 subject. Please consider the subject pre-requisites before enrolling. This subject includes live sessions with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

The &quot;Good Life&quot; is central to understanding Catholic Thought. This course addresses what it means to lead a good life as a human person. It focuses on philosophical and theological developments of the theory of natural law and the meaning of virtue. Through engaging with philosophical texts, Scripture, and works of art and literature, it traces the development of principles for leading a good life throughout the history of the Church, with particular focus on what it means to follow Christ. The course uses the methods of learning and teaching of the Catholic liberal arts tradition.

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