Double degrees

[boysenberry]

At the University of Melbourne is there any way you can choose to undertake two undergraduate courses at the same time? Also, what exactly is a double degree? Is it basically what I'm asking for or are double degrees restricted do to involve 2 courses which supplement each other.

I may not be explaining this properly but I hope somebody out there understands what I'm trying to say. So, I'll give an example. At Monash University, where you can do double degrees, can you choose to undertake any combination of double degrees based on any two single undergraduate degrees offered? Or can you only mix certain types of individual courses together, for example, Bachelor of Arts/Science however I've never heard of something like Bachelor of Aerospace engineering/Biomedicine. So hypothetically in this case if you wanted to study the Bachelor of Aerospace engineering and a Bachelor of Biomedicine at the same time would this be considered a double degree? Would the university allow this?

If so, then are melb uni students allowed to undertake two separate courses at the same time that aren't double degrees? Sorry, I'm still a bit confused on what double degrees actually are. Please excuse my ignorance.

[Russ]

UoM have removed double degrees, you can only do one of six general undergraduate degree (arts, biomedicine, commerce, environments, music, science). You cannot combine them and do arts/science, but you can take up to six subjects from another degree over the course of your education.

You can change between degrees for whatever reason but you cannot study them concurrently.

[boysenberry]

You cannot combine them and do arts/science, but you can take up to six subjects from another degree over the course of your education.

Are you talking about breath subjects here? Is there anyway besides breath/diploma in which you can study a bit from another degree at UoM concurrently?

[happyhappyland]

Actually you can "sort of" do a double degree...

Just say you wanted to do Bach of Commerce and Bach of Arts. You would start Bach of Commerce and in your breadth subjects you take art subjects then after you graduate with your bach of commerce you start your arts degree except through breadth subjects, you dont have to do 3 years of the arts degree since you have already taken a few arts subject.

For an arts degree there are subject prerequities and so once u have done all those subjects you get a Bach of arts!

For the two degrees it may take 4 or 5 years.

[Russ]

That's hardly a double degree, that's just doing two different degrees (and there's no way it would take 4 years, you might be able to cram it into 5 years if you constantly did summer subjects)

[funkyducky]

Actually you can "sort of" do a double degree...

Just say you wanted to do Bach of Commerce and Bach of Arts. You would start Bach of Commerce and in your breadth subjects you take art subjects then after you graduate with your bach of commerce you start your arts degree except through breadth subjects, you dont have to do 3 years of the arts degree since you have already taken a few arts subject.

For an arts degree there are subject prerequities and so once u have done all those subjects you get a Bach of arts!

For the two degrees it may take 4 or 5 years.

Yeah, so in effect, it ends up being the same length as a regular double degree.

[happyhappyland]

Actually you can "sort of" do a double degree...
Just say you wanted to do Bach of Commerce and Bach of Arts. You would start Bach of Commerce and in your breadth subjects you take art subjects then after you graduate with your bach of commerce you start your arts degree except through breadth subjects, you dont have to do 3 years of the arts degree since you have already taken a few arts subject.
For an arts degree there are subject prerequities and so once u have done all those subjects you get a Bach of arts!
For the two degrees it may take 4 or 5 years.

Yeah, that's sequential degrees - I doubt you could do it in 4 years though, although it is permitted to cross-credit up to 100 pts of study so 5 years may be possible (though you would have to select your subjects carefully).

In the past you can do it in 4 years, but theyve reduced the amount of breadth subjects you have to take. Usually its with an arts degree since less credit points are required for some majors

[happyhappyland]

Just say you wanted to do Bach of Commerce and Bach of Arts. You would start Bach of Commerce and in your breadth subjects you take art subjects then after you graduate with your bach of commerce you start your arts degree except through breadth subjects, you dont have to do 3 years of the arts degree since you have already taken a few arts subject.

So do you have to do arts subjects in your BComm breadth to do BComm/BA in 5 years? Are you not allowed to cross-credit subjects you've done in breadth in your BComm into the breadth of your arts degree so you don't have to do breadth in arts? Does anyone know exactly how this thing works?

Im not 100% sure but after youve got your bach of comm and you want to just finish your arts degree... you dont have to take an breadth subjects. Dont rely on me for this information as Im going to Monash its just that my sister managed to do a bach of music and bach of arts in 4 years and there was a huge dicussion in my family about it.

Best advice is to go to course advice at the start of the year (dont call them go DIRECTLY to the university) and ask about it.

[Russ]

Was she particularly talented at music? Because it's much easier to skip ahead and get advanced credit etc. in Music as opposed to more formal subjects.

With respect to actually doing a Commerce then Arts degree (why?), you wouldn't need to do breadth in the second degree so you could theoretically finish in 5 years. You may still be forced to spend 6 years studying due to scheduling limitations for your second degree, but your load in years 5 and 6 would be lower.

There wouldn't be any need to visit the university beforehand, because your first degree will still be structured normally and thus allow you to gain the 100 credit points

That said, take it with a grain of salt since I'm not actually following that pathway

[happyhappyland]

also what major in arts you are interested in?... and why are you doing commerce and arts? they are very different areas of study

[Russ]

Your commerce subjects get credited as breadth for your arts degree, I guess you may need to take arts subjects as your commerce breadth subjects to cut your final year entirely.

why are you doing commerce and arts? they are very different areas of study

Look at his sig lol

[Eriny]

also what major in arts you are interested in?... and why are you doing commerce and arts? they are very different areas of study

I actually know quite a few people doing this. They usually like to mix commerce subjects with languages or international relations, which can be quite handy. Additionally, any commerce graduate would be well served by the written communication skills developed in an arts degree. And it works the other way as well, someone who is interested in an arts subject and wants to pursue it as part of their career would benefit from a background in business.

[vexx]

Yeah, you can do two degrees after one another. The breadth done in the first degree can be used as main subjects for the second degree, so you can finish it in less time, and not have to do the breadth requirements since you fulfil them by doing a previous degree. They said its done in 5 years usually, i didn't really question further..
Perhaps you can shorter with overloading+summer subjects.

[Russ]

I suppose the question is whether that's 100 pts of credit regardless or 100 pts of credit only if you've taken suitable subjects. You could get 75pts as your previous degree core subjects taken as breadth, but I'm not sure if the extra 25pts is conditional on you having done certain subjects.

Then again, it will probably be different in 2 years time (let alone 5 when you start your second degree)