Bachelor of Social Science

There’s plenty of freedom of choice in what to study in a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree, but there are also a number of requirements that you will have to follow. These requirements are listed here and explained in detail below.

Let's go through each of these requirements.

What are credit points?

• Students doing a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree study in a range of subject areas. These include core areas such as Social, Political & Economic Thought, as well as in other subject areas of their choice in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, such as English, Gender Studies, etc.
• A semester-length component in a particular subject area is called a ‘unit of study’.
• Each unit of study is worth a certain number of ‘credit points’, depending on the level at which it is taught and the amount of work required. From 2006, most units of study at the University of Sydney will be worth 6 credit points each.

How do I get 192 credit points?

• Most people studying full time take four years to complete a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree.
• Full-time students usually earn their 192 credit points by taking units of study worth a total of 48 credit points per year (usually 24 credit points per semester) over the four years of their degree, that is:
  48 credit points x 4 years = 192 credit points!

What are junior credit points?

• You start your degree by taking ‘junior’ units of study. They form a foundation for more advanced ‘intermediate’ and ‘senior’ units. Junior units of study are worth 6 credit points each. They are sometimes referred to as 1000 level units because their unit of study codes all have the form 1XXX, e.g. JPNS1111, ASNS1001, LNGS1005, etc.

How do I get my junior credit points?

• Most full-time students take units of study worth 48 junior credit points in their first year (generally 24 credit points in each semester). It is important to remember that 48 credit points is also the maximum number allowed in first year.
• If you’re studying part-time, it is usually recommended that you do a minimum of 18 junior credit points in your first year of enrolment, so that you are eligible to meet progression requirements to be able continue on to 2nd year.

What junior units of study should I do in my first year?

• To make up 48 credit points in your first year, most students take four 6 credit point junior units in each semester. However, you will need to make sure to:
• include any prerequisites you may need for your Social Sciences and Humanities majors (see below). You’ll need to check the relevant Faculty Handbook(s), in print or online, the online Table of Units of Study or the Unit of Study Database to find out if there are any prerequisites for senior units in the subjects you plan to study.
• put in place the other junior units that are required, and then consider your further choices.
• Below is an example of how you might put together your first year:

Can I do more than 48 junior credit points?

• Yes, you can take up to 72 junior credit points altogether in your Bachelor of Social Sciences degree. 48 is the maximum you can do in your first year. You can do a further 24 junior credit points in later years if you want to. On the other hand, it is okay if you choose to stay with just the 48 credit points that you’ve already got from first year, and add extra ‘senior’ credit points later instead.

Could I do less than 48 junior credit points?

• Yes, as long as you have the core units and the necessary prerequisites, but … for two reasons, it’s not a good idea to skimp too much on junior credit points!
• Firstly, remember that junior units form a foundation for further study. In some cases this is a necessary foundation for more advanced study in a particular subject area. In all cases, junior units provide an opportunity to work at developing the skills and ways of thinking that you will need for more advanced learning at the tertiary level.
• Secondly, junior units of study offer you the chance to sample a range of subject areas and gain a variety of learning experiences, even in subjects that you may not go on to specialize in.

• The unit of study required is STAT1021 General Statistical Methods 1.

• These Social Sciences units are only available to those students enrolled in the Bachelor of Social Sciences degree. They are core to your understanding of Social Sciences.

What are senior credit points?

• ‘Senior’ units of study build on the foundation of learning established by junior units of study in a particular subject area.
• From 2006, senior units in the Faculty of Arts are worth 6 senior credit points each. They are sometimes called 2000 and 3000 level units because their of study codes all have the form 2XXX or 3XXX, e.g. ANHS2606, KOCR2600, WMST3690, etc.

How do I get 120 senior credit points?

• Most full time students in the Bachelor of Social Sciences program will start to take senior units of study in their second year, after having put the appropriate foundation of junior units in place in the first year. At this stage many students narrow down the range of subject areas in which they are studying.
• You can get the credit points required to complete your degree over your second, third, and fourth years by choosing subjects that add up to 24 credit points in each semester. (24 credit points x 6 semesters = 144 credit points; 144 credit points plus the 48 credit points earned in Year 1 = 192 credit points!)
• If all of the 144 units you take over the second, third, and fourth years are senior units, then you’ll have more than the required 120 senior credit points. If you prefer, you could choose instead to stay with just 120 senior credit points, and make up the additional 24 credit points

Could I do more than 24 credit points per semester?

• You might want to take more than 24 credit points in one semester – perhaps to make up for a unit of study that you have failed or to try to get through your degree more quickly.
• You will be permitted to do up to (but no more than) 30 credit points per semester in your second, third, and fourth years. However, be aware that 30 credit points in a single semester is a very heavy load. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to do your best in each unit you take (and very unlikely that you’ll have a life while you do it!)

What senior units of study should I do?

• Once again, it’s a good idea to first put in place the units that are required, and then consider your other choices. Let’s look at the remaining senior requirements.

What is a major?

• To earn a major, students will complete 36 senior credit points in that subject area.
• Remember that you may need to have the appropriate junior (1XXX) prerequisites in place before you can do these senior units of study.

What subject areas can I study in for my Social Sciences major?

The following are the subject areas you can choose from your Social Sciences major:

• Aboriginal Studies
• Anthropology
• Economics
• Education
• European Studies
• Gender Studies
• Government and International Relations
• Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management
• Linguistics
• Political Economy
• Social Policy
• Sociology

What subject areas can I study in for my Humanities major?

The following are the subject areas you can choose from for your Humanities major:

Ancient History

Arab World, Islam and the Middle East

Arabic Language and Literature

Archaeology (Classical)

Archaeology (Near Eastern)

Archaeology (Prehistoric and Historical)

Art History and Theory

Asian Studies

Australan Literature

Australian Studies

Chinese Studies

Classical Civilisation

English

Film Studies

French Studies

Germanic Studies

Greek (Ancient)

Greek and Roman Literature

Hebrew (Classical)

Hebrew (Modern)

Heritage Studies

Hindi-Urdu

History

Indonesian and Malay Studies

Italian Studies

Japanese Studies

Jewish Civilisation, Thought and Culture

Korean Studies

Latin

Medieval Studies

Modern Greek

Music

Performance Studies

Philosophy

Sanskrit

Spanish

Studies in Religion

• This means that you cannot complete your entire degree in the one subject area. Variety is the spice of life!

Here is an example of how you might put together the requirements of your Bachelor of Social Sciences in your second, third and fourth years:

• 48 intermediate or senior credit points in each of Years 2, 3, and 4 add up to 144 intermediate or senior credit points, which satisfies Requirement 2 of at least 120 intermediate or senior credit points. AGAIN – you could choose to take extra junior credit points instead of some or all of the extra senior ones.
• When you sum the credit points earned in Year 1 (48) with those earned in Years 2, 3, and 4 (144), you can see they add up to 192 credit points … i.e. your Bachelor of Social Sciences degree!!!

Bachelor of Arts and Sciences - Degree Overview