Breadth
The breadth component of the new generation undergraduate degrees will offer University of Melbourne students the opportunity to choose additional subjects from outside their major area of study, to develop other kinds of expertise. The ability to do this will be critical in the global knowledge era where technologies keep changing, and innovative, professional work relies on an international outlook and the ability to collaborate across wide and diverse networks.
Making up at least 25 per cent of a student's program, breadth subjects will expose students to alternative domains of knowledge, different methods of enquiry, enhanced personal and professional skills, and different 'ways of knowing'. Students will develop an understanding and appreciation of fields of study and disciplines that contrast with, yet complement, their major area of study. Breadth subjects will integrate perspectives from the sciences, the social sciences and humanities, and will be led by expert teachers and researchers from across the University. Climate change is an example of an issue which will be offered as a breadth subject as it cannot be understood fully from the perspective of a single discipline.
There are two types of breadth subjects:
- subjects from other new generation undergraduate degree programs
- special new university breadth subjects, such as critical thinking, climate change, catastrophes and culture
These can provide students with many options to:
- pursue a personal interest, for example in music or a foreign language
- complement a Bachelor of Science major such as Genetics, with an organisational studies subject such as 'Managing People and Organisations'
- study a university breadth subject that explores a broad topic, for example, climate change, across several disciplines
Details will be made available on the Future Students website and in the On-line Handbook 2008.