Bachelor of Arts - Victoria University of Wellington

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The Bachelor of Arts

Studying the arts is about gaining skills and abilities essential to any career. While immersing yourself in languages, history, politics or philosophy, you will also be honing your problem-solving and analytical skills and learning to present arguments with imagination and vision.

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) is Victoria's most popular degree. Its flexible structure means you can study the subjects important to you, but a Victoria BA is about more than just subject areas. You'll be expected to think creatively and critically, and adapt positively to challenging new ideas.

Victoria’s BA programme is exceptionally flexible, so you can shape a degree that suits you. Choose subjects that are closely related – like Asian Studies and an Asian language – for a focused, specialised degree. Or major in one subject that suits your career ambitions, while keeping your passions alive with study in other areas.

A BA leads to study in Victoria’s Honours, Masters, and PhD and other specialist programmes in a wide range of subject areas. The career opportunities for Arts graduates are equally varied. BA graduates are employed in almost every part of the workforce, both in jobs relating to their specialty subject and by employers who value their analytical and communication skills. Policy analyst, journalist, teacher, translator, diplomat, artist, market researcher, social worker, librarian, criminologist, aid worker... a BA is suited to hundreds of careers.

A BA at Victoria

A Bachelor of Arts degree requires three years of full-time study. 360 points are required. At least 180 points must be above 100 level with at least 72 of these at 300 level. See the Course Catalogue to find out the points value of courses.

To enrol in a BA you need a university entrance qualification. In some areas it is useful to have studied subjects relevant to your course of study.

Majors: Students must meet the requirements of a major in at least one subject. Each subject has specific courses you need to take to meet the requirements of a major and involves in-depth study at 300 level. If you are not sure which subject to choose as your major, you can include a number of different options in your first year, and make a more specific choice in your second year. Many students major in two subjects, and it is possible to major in three. There are two ways to complete a major in two subjects:

• Full Majors: you need to meet the major requirements for more than one major, ensuring all courses beyond 100 level are counted only towards one of the majors. Your degree certificate will read “BA in X and Y”.
  
  
• Combined Majors: you need to meet the major requirements for more than one major, ensuring you take at least one 300-level course that is exclusive to each major. Your degree certificate will read “BA with Combined Majors in X and Y”.

Many students combine a BA with another degree. Because a number of courses can be credited to both degrees, it is possible for able students to complete two three-year degrees in four to five years. There is also a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Teaching programme.

BA Subjects

Major subjects

Subjects which aren't available as BA majors