Name of degree/qualification: Bachelor of Arts
Institution: University of Melbourne
Course duration (years): 3 years full time
Progress: 1/3 of the way through (just finished first year).
Contact hours: Generally one arts subject has 3 contact hours per week (2hr lectures, 1hr tute) and a full load is 4 subjects, so the standard contact hours for BA is 12.
However, as arts is such a broad degree, many subjects will run differently (for example, if you major in psychology, your contact hours will be more similar to that of a BSc student). Your breadth subjects (units outside of the arts faculty) also differ in contact hours.
That said, regardless of what subjects you take, you are almost guaranteed have less contact hours than a student doing science or biomed. Arts (and commerce) has the lowest contact hours out of all the university degrees, because you generally would have to do much more reading outside of class.
Class structure: A standard arts subject has 2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of tutorial a week. Lectures are normally recorded and attendance isn't compulsory, but there is a 75% attendance requirement for tutorials.
All BA students are required to complete at least one Arts Foundation subject, maximum 2, from a choice of Power, Reason, Representation, Language, Identity, and Aboriginalities. Aside from that, there are no core subjects all arts students must take, and you choose your subjects depending on the requirements of your major, which would be different for everybody.
A standard arts major requires the completion of 100 points (8 subjects). One of these must be your capstone subject which you take in 3rd year. You can let one foundation subject count towards your 100-pt requirement.
The non-standard arts majors are Economics (112.5 pts - 9 subjects) and Psychology (125 pts - 10 subjects). For both, your arts foundation subject cannot count towards your major.
Assessment/exams:Again, this varies between majors, however most arts subjects do not have exams - at least, no exams in the traditional sense where you sit in a room and complete a paper in a strict timeframe of a few hours. For most arts units, assessments generally involve a minor assignment at the start of the semester, a major research essay of 2,000 words due midsemester, and finally a shorter research essay due during the exam period. For most subjects, assessments add up to 4,000 words in total.
Not all subjects follow this structure. Namely, subjects from Economics and Psychology will follow the assessment structure used for commerce and science, which will include exams.
Networking/opportunities: Faculty clubs and societies are great for networking. The major one to look out for is MASS (Melbourne Arts Student Society), which is well known for being the largest social club on campus, however they also run workshops, industry nights, and even writing competitions for you to have a chance to get your works published.
Joining smaller faculty clubs is also a must. I would also suggest taking part in a political club on campus for maximum network expansion.
Aside from clubs and societies, UniMelb also offer countless networking and internship opportunities for you to "get a sense of the real world" while you're still studying. For example, in second and third year you are allowed to do semester-long internships which credits towards your degree.
Friends/social stuff: From my totally objective and unbiased opinion, arts has the best social atmosphere out of all the degrees. There's plenty of stuff going on from day 1. New arts students are invited to the 'arts welcome fest' a few days before the official O-Week, which is a great chance to meet people; then there's arts camp and several major O-Week parties held by MASS before and during the semester. MASS holds some of the biggest social events on campus which you do not want to miss. (I swear I am not sponsored by MASS. This is just my experience.)
Any surprises from what you expected? I was really taken back by how hectic uni was from the get go, despite being told throughout year 12 that (i) first year is a cruise; and (ii) arts is the easiest degree you can do. Going from averaging high 90s in my year 12 essays to 60s-70s in my uni ones was not something I was prepared for.
Social-wise, I was surprised at how difficult it is to maintain friendships on campus, especially with people you meet from lectures and tutorials. I probably gained about 50 new "friends" from just the first week, but trying to organise times to catch up after that proves to be rather difficult.
Any other thoughts? Please don't mind me shamelessly plugging my
university journal. If you want a continuous and more detailed insight into arts at Melbourne (specifically history/economics), feel free to give it a read.
On the whole, I'm really enjoying Bachelor of Arts; I think the course is well organised and the quality of teaching at UniMelb is amazing. I know there's the whole stigma of "Urgh, arts? What kind of job are you gonna get?" but I think it's just a matter of choosing your majors and subjects carefully, and taking advantage of any networking/internship/volunteering etc opportunity.