College of Arts

Welcome

Message from the Executive Dean

Welcome to the College of Arts at the University of Western Sydney.

We offer opportunities for educational and vocational preparation in a range of liberal and creative arts and professional areas. We are committed to an academic focus that is contemporary, interdisciplinary, creative and innovative, international, and founded on values that support a society committed to social, cultural, economic and political justice.

The college attaches priority to developing strategies to enhance the relationship between teaching and research. We particularly pride ourselves on a commitment to developing graduates in areas where local needs are significant and growing rapidly.

On behalf of the staff of the college, I am pleased to welcome you and invite you to contact us if you have any questions about our courses, our research or the many other activities that make studying and working with us a productive and exciting experience.

Professor Wayne McKenna
BA (Hons), PhD Leeds
Executive Dean, College of Arts

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Areas of Expertise

Teaching and Learning

The college offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses to around 9500 Australian and international students through:

• the School of Communication Arts
• the School of Education
• the School of Humanities and Languages
• the School of Psychology
• the School of Social Sciences.

Our discipline areas include:

• communication and design
• music
• education (early childhood, primary, secondary, adult and special education)
• humanities (art history and cinema studies; Asian and international studies; Islamic studies; cultural and social analysis; English, text and writing; and history, politics and philosophy)
• languages (Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Spanish), interpreting and translation, TESOL
  
• psychology
• social science (social work, policing, community welfare and social ecology).

Our programs are professionally oriented and many include a professional experience or community service learning component, which facilitate community engagement. The college is committed to providing a flexible and responsive learning environment for students. To this end, e-learning, the enhancement of face-to-face programs with online delivery, and the development of assessment tools that engage students with their professional futures are key strategic priorities.

The college is committed to developing high quality graduates and every year we recognise the outstanding academic achievement of our students through the Dean's Merit List (PDF, 69Kb). This list is compiled at the end of each academic year once final grades have been processed and includes the names of those students enrolled in the College of Arts who in the 12 month period completed at least 40 credit points, had a grade point average (GPA) of 6.0 or greater, and were in the top 10 percent of the college cohort.

Research

The college is home to four university research centres:

• the Centre for Cultural Research
• the Centre for Educational Research
• MARCS Auditory Laboratories Research Centre
• the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre.

We also have one university research group and four research nodes. Staff and students of the college engage in both pure and applied research, and in research that is regional, national or international in its focus.

The research culture in the college is distinctive in that it encourages synergies across disciplines and collaboration amongst staff, students and community partners. The college has an excellent track record in winning Australian Research Council grants, particularly Linkage Project grants, and participates in a number of industry, government and community commissioned research projects.

Through our schools, research centres and research groups the college provides a suite of research training programs, and internationally renowned researchers foster stimulating and supportive research training environments.

Community Engagement

The College of Arts is engaged in many activities that generate mutual benefits for, and develop productive relationships between, the college and its communities. These include professional experience programs, community service learning projects, ARC Linkage Projects, and industry and government and community commissioned research projects.

Other ways in which the college fosters relationships with its communities include:

• organisation of and participation in cultural exhibitions and events
• consultancies
• hosting of conferences
• public lectures
• symposia and colloquia
• provision of expert commentary to the media
• staff membership of external committees, boards and advisory groups
• provision of services to the community through specialist clinics.

Internationalisation

The College of Arts has links with universities in many parts of the world. These provide opportunities for student and staff exchanges, as well as collaborative research projects with an international focus. The college offers scholarships to both students and staff for international travel.

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Locations

The College of Arts offers programs on Bankstown and Penrith campuses. Our research centres, research groups and research concentrations are on Bankstown, Parramatta and Penrith campuses. For information about the programs we offer and their availability, please see our course directory.

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