Faculty of Arts undergraduate handbook

Message from the Dean

I extend a warm welcome to commencing and continuing students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney. As a student in the faculty, you are embarking on one of the most enriching experiences of your life.

There isn't a major challenge the world faces today that doesn't require the skills and tools honed in our disciplines, whether it is global poverty, war, climate change, the ethical responsibilities of corporations, or fundamental questions about human happiness and well-being. Understanding the deep philosophical, historical, social-scientific and cultural dimensions of these challenges is essential if we are going to address them in a constructive way.

Our society needs people skilled in critical analysis, people with the insight, creativity and imagination to transform information into something meaningful. We need people with the capacity to communicate knowledge to others in accessible and informed ways. Increasingly these are the skills that employers are seeking in all their workers and these are precisely the talents you will develop in undertaking your studies in the Faculty of Arts. In this diverse and stimulating intellectual climate, you will have the opportunity to explore many fields in the humanities and social sciences, developing new ideas and ways of seeing the world.

An education in the humanities and social sciences, is more than just a means of fitting you for the demands of a career. By introducing you to the riches of the humanities, the social sciences, languages, music and the arts, the faculty seeks to develop new horizons for all its students, to help them achieve their potential as productive, fulfilled, creative, imaginative, tolerant and useful citizens. We believe that what you learn here will stand you in good stead for the rest of your lives, not just your working lives.

You are joining a body of about 7300 students, almost 6000 of whom are undergraduates, with an academic staff of about 314 and 123 administrative staff. Students come from a diversity of backgrounds: Australian and overseas born, of English and non-English speaking backgrounds, domestic and international students, students of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, recent school leavers and older students who may have begun or completed other forms of vocational or higher education, with a range of employment experiences, all creating a richness in the student population which contributes to the scholarly debates in formal tutorials and seminars and in your informal discussions.

You will be assisted in all of your learning by the excellent resources of the University Library, the Arts eLearning group, Arts Digital and other support groups, linking print-based scholarship with other forms of computer-based learning, essential for the acquisition of knowledge and mastery of the new technologies in the contemporary world and the contemporary labour force.

As a new student, how can you find your way around this large and widely dispersed faculty? The Faculty of Arts office, with its central administrative functions, is located on the western side of the University quadrangle. The faculty office will link you to the central University and more particularly serve as an information centre for the various departments, interdepartmental programs and schools listed in this handbook, where lectures and tutorials and numerous informal meetings, academic and social, take place.

I encourage you to consider spending time overseas as part of your degree. We have a wide range of exchange agreements with overseas institutions which allow you to study abroad while enrolled here. This is an opportunity to broaden your horizons even further.

Studying Arts, whether as your main degree or as a foundation for other degrees, or studying one of the more specialised three- and four-year degrees in the faculty, offers you the chance to participate in and contribute to one of the most dynamic faculties of its kind in Australia and the world. In doing so, you will be contributing to the generation of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences and helping to shape Australia's future by taking hold of your own. Best wishes for a fantastic year with us.

Professor Duncan Ivison
Dean of Arts