Study a Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Study Arts at Flinders

Design your dream career

Build your knowledge base in the areas you’re passionate about, develop the complex critical thinking and problem solving skills required to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges, and learn transferable skills that are highly valued in the workplace with a Bachelor of Arts.

You’ll develop world-changing, future-proof skills in a world that’s changing fast. Become digitally literate, think outside the box and develop the skills to adapt and take advantage of new opportunities.

Fast facts

Course facts at a glance.

Domestic

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International Student

I am not a citizen of
Australia or New Zealand.

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I am a
Domestic Student

I am an Australian or New Zealand Citizen.

I'm an Australian Permanent Resident
(including Humanitarian Visa holders).

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Prerequisites

None

Assumed knowledge

None

2022 selection rank

60.00

Guaranteed selection rank

70.00

TAFElink

Certificate IV or above

Adjustment factors available

Yes

SATAC code

214031

Delivery mode

In person:

– Bedford Park

Online: No

Duration

3 years full-time
(or part-time equivalent)
Deferrable: Yes

Annual indicative fee

2022: $12,258

How are these fees calculated?

Start dates

– March
– July

Student and ATAR profile

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Student and ATAR profile

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Why study Arts at Flinders

No. 1 in SA in Humanities, Culture & Social Sciences for full-time employment, starting salary, learning resources, overall quality of educational experience and skills development*
No. 1 in SA in Humanities, Culture & Social Sciences for full-time employment, starting salary and overall quality of educational experience**
Build a degree that suits your interests and career aspirations
Combine a BA with another degree and graduate with two degrees in an area you choose
Gain industry experience and build a professional network with work integrated learning
Develop the transferable skills employers are looking for
Select one or two majors from 24 disciplines and a minor from 29 disciplines
Choose from majors unique to SA universities including drama, law and society, archaeology, and innovation and enterprise
Develop as a thinker, researcher and communicator
Learn how to investigate and analyse ideas, communicate your findings and build your knowledge base in a variety of industries
Study people: their behaviours, their habits, their desires and needs, and the ways that human societies express themselves now -and in the past-through language, art, and culture

^{*The Good Universities Guide 2020 (postgraduate), public SA-founded universities only}** The Good Universities Guide 2020 (undergraduate), public SA-founded universities only

Learn more about studying Arts at Flinders

Your career

Graduates are suited to employment in many fields given the broad scope of specialisations available.

Potential occupations include:

graduate policy officer
editorial assistant
communications and campaigns assistant
assistant advocacy officer
employment consultant.

Potential employers include:

government agencies
tourism businesses
banks
public and private companies
universities
community agencies
arts organisations.

Professional accreditation/recognition

The psychology major is accredited by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council.

Majors and minors

The following study areas can be taken as a major or minor.

Applied linguistics

Applied linguistics is concerned with the practical issues of language such as learning and teaching, policy, multilingualism, cross-cultural communication, maintaining languages, and language difficulties.

Archaeology

Delve into the world’s rich cultural history, uncovering the links between past, present and future societies. Unearth and analyse artefacts with a major that prepares you for a wide range of jobs in museums, government, community organisations and the cultural heritage management industry.

Creative writing

Creative writing develops the creative, practical, critical and collaborative skills necessary to pursue a career in the communication, arts and related creative industries.

Criminology

Criminology explores who commits crime, and critiques how the criminal justice system responds to crime.

Drama

Drama offers grounding in the theories of theatre and performance workshops in movement, voice, improvisation and Stanislavskian techniques.

English

English encourages a knowledge of and enthusiasm for literature, and fosters effective communication skills critical in the workplace today.

French

French is spoken in more than 40 countries, including some of Australia’s closest neighbours, and is one of the most widely taught second languages in the world.

Geography and environmental studies

Geography and environmental studies explores dynamic relationships between people, our cultures, and the natural and built environments that shape us.

History

History provides an introduction to issues that have shaped and continue to influence the modern world, such as revolution, fascism, migration, population, warfare and globalisation.

Health in Community Contexts

NEW in 2023

You'll be introduced to health as a social challenge in order to build knowledge and skills that facilitate the employment in policy and community contexts. Health remains one of the fastest area of employment with opportunities well beyond the medical and clinical fields.

Indigenous and Australian studies

Indigenous and Australian studies is a sociocultural analysis of a changing nation and its people, drawing on humanities, education and social sciences to give a broad perspective of Australian culture and society.

Indonesian

Studying Indonesian is a vital key to understanding our region. In addition to your new language skills, you’ll learn how Indonesia works and the ways people think, feel and live together.

Innovation and enterprise

Innovation and enterprise provides you with the skills to enhance your creativity, understand and embrace innovation, and think like an entrepreneur.

International relations

International relations studies global issues such as diplomacy, foreign policy, the military, human rights, economies, trade and international organisations.

Italian

Italy is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, an essential tourist destination, and a major trading partner with Australia. Italian language is a pathway to employment.

Law and society

Law and society equips you with practical legal and analytical skills valuable in many industries including social work, policing, legal services, research and policy positions.

Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Games of thrones, cultural encounters, social upheavals – find out how medieval and early modern civilisations changed the world.

Modern Greek

The study of Modern Greek language and culture provides the key to understanding the importance of the Hellenic tradition in western intellectual development.

Philosophy

Philosophy deals with some of the big questions about the world, society and ourselves, and encourages thought and discussion by presenting a range of possible answers.

Politics

Politics encompasses how groups of people conduct and understand their public life together. Politics is the study of public life in Australia and the rest of the world.

Professional Futures

NEW in 2023

You'll be provided with the fundamental knowledge and workplace skills development to pursue the career of your choice. This major will help you to identify your professional purpose and identity, giving you skills to manage your future career.

Psychology

Psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience including how we learn and develop, personality and self-esteem, thinking processes, and psychological problems.

Screen and media

Screen and media involves the study and analysis of a wide range of screen-based media including film, television, computer games and online media.

Sociology

Sociology studies the social institutions and processes of contemporary society, linking the way individuals form identities against the backdrop of society and the construction of culture.

Spanish

Spanish is one of the three most widely spoken languages in the world, one of six official languages of the UN, and an important trading language in the Asia-Pacific.

Visual arts

Visual arts provides the technical, aesthetic, and cultural skills to understand and work in the arts and cultural sectors, and related fields.

Women's and gender studies

Women’s studies addresses the broad question of how gender operates, both in contemporary life and historically, in Australia and in other cultures.

Minors only

The following areas are available as minors in the BA:

Information technology
International affairs
Mathematics
Sciences.

Face tomorrow’s challenges head on

Flinders’ unique stream of career-ready topics will allow you to explore real-world issues, happening right now. A Bachelor of Arts degree will prepare you for a career in almost any field, and Flinders Bachelor of Arts has a richly diverse suite of subject areas, as well as a uniquely-focused set of core topics that will help you prepare for the challenging social transformations that the world is going through right now.

Global Challenge Topics
These topics are designed to challenge and broaden your thinking about real-world issues, and encourage you to explore solutions to some of the biggest problems.

Crisis and catastrophe: past experiences, future prospects

War, famine, drought, disease, economic crises and natural disasters have disrupted and radically altered all societies including our own. They also seem set to continue to do so.

You’ll explore case studies from the ancient world to the present to understand the future. You’ll study how societies have dealt with major crises and catastrophes in the past, such as: the destruction of states from the Romans to the Mongols, Indigenous population collapse under iimperial expansion, the Black Death in Asia and Europe, The Spanish Flu, and the Global Great Depression, to name a few. This will equip you with the knowledge to assess which social and political strategies could work, or will fail, in the future.

Ethical challenge of climate change

This topic examines the global challenge of human caused climate change. You’ll explore: allocating the burdens of climate action between developed, developing and underdeveloped nations; our responsibilities to future generations; understanding the place of human beings in relation to the rest of the natural world; our psychological attitudes towards climate change; the critical assessment of various notion of progress and related notions of human mastery over the natural world.

Sustainable development in a global world

This Grand Challenge presents an opportunity to rethink the concept and measurement of societal progress to reflect these emerging challenges, and to contribute to a second paradigm shift involving sustainable development.

You’ll explore the inroads into creating a bridge between the human-centred development paradigm and the ambitions of the United Nations: Global Sustainable Development Goals for a more sustainable world, not just environmentally but also socially, financially and in other ways.

Precarity and possibility: creating social change for the 21st Century

How will we survive the 21st century? Human beings are facing major challenges and we need to imagine how they can be met.

You’ll explore climate change and environmental destruction, the massive inequalities between people and nations, social and economic systems that are rooted in exploitation, cities that are for many unhealthy and unsafe, sharp tensions between individual freedoms and state surveillance and the everyday challenges of maintaining physical, mental and spiritual health.

Humanity in a global age

The birth of the modern age in the West placed the human at the centre of all understanding, as both the agent of inquiry and the object of study. And yet, history shows that the status of the human is anything but transparent.

Some suggest we are entering the age of the ‘post-human’, as these various challenges show the limitations of the category. You’ll consider the human not as the source and summit of our understanding, but as a contested concept that is embedded in a context that is natural, cultural, and political – in a word, global. With life on the planet increasingly at stake, the future of humanity depends on modes of understanding that are essentially pluralistic.

Employability stream

These core topics from first to third year are designed to make you career-ready long before you graduate.

Communication
Critical thinking
Digital and academic literacy
Pre-professional identity
Industry placements

What you will study

First year A typical first year may include:	a core topic in academic and professional communication introductory topics contributing to a major topics contributing to a minor or second major elective topics.
Second year A typical second year may include:	intermediate topics contributing to a major topics contributing to a minor or second major elective topics.
Third year A typical third year may include:	intermediate topics contributing to a major topics contributing to a minor or second major elective topics.
Honours year A typical honours year may include:	Honours topics in your chosen major (not all areas are available as an honours year).

View study program

Follow your passions. Enhance your career prospects

Combine a Bachelor of Letters with your degree

15 specialisations to choose from.

Learn more

Practical experience

The degree provides you with practical experience that prepares you for the workforce. Access practical topics, placements and internship opportunities through your choice of majors and minors.

ATAR and Student Profile Information

ATAR and Selection Rank profile

The table below shows ATAR and Selection Rank data for students offered a place wholly or partly on the basis of ATAR commencing in Semester 1, 2022. It is limited to applicants that have recently completed secondary education (within the last two years). Data may reflect multiple courses available within a suite of courses.

Notes:
<5 – less than 5 ATAR based offers made
N/A – This course uses additional selection criteria and therefore Selection Rank is not published

ATAR-based offers only across all offer rounds	ATAR - Excluding adjustment factors	Selection Rank - ATAR plus any adjustment factors
Highest rank to receive an offer	91.05	95.25
Median rank to receive an offer	61.52	64.80
Lowest rank to receive an offer	44.25	52.90

Student Profile

The table below gives an indication of the likely peer cohort for new students in this course. It provides data on students who commenced study in this course in Semester 1, 2022 including those admitted through all offer rounds and international students studying in Australia. Applicant background groupings are based on educational background, not basis of admission. Data may reflect multiple courses available within a suite of courses.

Notes:
<5 – the number of students is less than 5
N/P – Not published: the number is hidden to prevent calculation of numbers in cells with less than 5 students

Applicant background (Semester 1, 2022)	Number of students	Percentage of all students
Higher education study (includes a bridging or enabling course)	39	44%
Vocational education and training (VET) study	11	13%
Work and life experience	6	7%
Recent secondary education - Admitted solely on the basis of ATAR (regardless of whether this includes the consideration of adjustment factors such as equity or subject bonus points)	N/P	N/P
Recent secondary education - Admitted where both ATAR and additional criteria were considered (e.g. portfolio, audition, extra test)	<5	<5
Recent secondary education - Admitted on the basis of other criteria only and ATAR was not a factor (e.g. special consideration pathways)	9	10%
International Students	0	0%
All students	88	100%

Study abroad

There are opportunities to take your studies overseas with a student exchange program.

Innovation and
enterprise topics

At Flinders University, we recognise that careers are evolving and the workplace of the future will look very different from today.

Whatever undergraduate course you are studying at Flinders you can add innovation and enterprise electives to your degree to gain new, adaptable and transferrable skills that will equip you for changes in the global job market.

These innovation and enterprise electives prepare you for the careers of tomorrow by developing what we like to call ‘personal enterprise skills’ – the innate ability to adapt to whatever life throws at you, professionally and personally.

Pursue multiple passions with a combined degree

Bachelor of Arts combined degrees

By completing one additional year of full-time study, you can combine the Bachelor of Arts with a degree in the following and graduate with two undergraduate degrees:

Bachelor of International Relations and Political Science
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws (Honours)
Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice
Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Honours)
Bachelor of Tourism and Events

The Bachelor of Arts can also be used as a pathway to a double degree 4-year teaching qualification, or as a normal 3 year degree plus 2 year Master of teaching.

Search all combined degree options

“

I am excited to help people in their most vulnerable state, become healthier and happier people every day. Mental health is one of the pillars for happiness and if I can contribute to improving someone’s life, that sounds like the career for me.

Flinders was the right choice for me as it was local, friendly and supportive. It has a wide range of extra-curricular activities and resources that make being a Flinders student fun and engaging.

Flinders has helped me becoming future ready through their practical and applicable learning styles, and through the Horizon personal development program, aimed at helping me become a better professional when I graduate.

Studying at Flinders is a great experience with endless opportunities in whichever field you’re interested in. You can study abroad, find internships, make new friends, join social and sporting clubs, and have the flexibility in your learning to still pursue your passions outside of study. Being a student at Flinders will be the best time of your life.

Will Molloy Bachelor of Arts (Major in Psychology, minor in Criminology)

“

In the BA for High Achievers I am majoring in Drama and International Relations. The degree allows me to study the subjects I am interested in and surrounds me with mentors, teachers, and peers who support and challenge me to achieve my best. The High Achievers degree has provided me with a close cohort of friends who share similar interests. As a part of my degree, I will be going on exchange to Canada to further my studies.

Jamila Main Bachelor of Arts (Enchanced Program for High Achievers)

“

Flinders was the perfect choice for me as it really allowed me to pursue my interests and study in a friendly and productive environment. Flinders stands out to me from other universities because of the diversity in topics they offer as well as the tightknit and welcoming community within the college.

Yianni Cartledge Bachelor of Arts (History)/Bachelor of Education

How to apply

Choose your preferred course.

Check the entry requirements and admission pathways available to you.

Choose other courses to include in your preferences.

Visit SATAC and submit your application online.

Admission pathways

Applicants can apply for this course using Year 12 qualifications, previous higher education study, TAFE/VET qualifications, or through adult entry (STAT/Foundation Studies/tertiary preparation course).

Find the entry path that’s right for you.

Explore our pathways

How to apply

Select your course.

Check entry requirements.

Check your eligibility for credit.

Apply online

Obtain certified documents.

Submit your application and documents.

View further details

English language pathways

If you don’t meet our English language entry requirements and need to improve your English language proficiency, you can do so through Flinders University Academy – or our approved English Language Instruction Course for Overseas Students (ELICOS) providers.

This means that you can attend the required English language tuition at approved ELICOS providers and gain direct entry into university without an IELTS or TOEFL test.

Find out more

Academic program pathways

If you don’t meet our academic entry requirements, you can still gain entry to Flinders University through Flinders University Academy. With a range of diplomas, foundation and English language courses, students can find a direct pathway into the destination degree of their choice.

Find out more

Course enquiries

Want more information about studying at Flinders University? Contact us to find out more – we’d love to help you decide if Flinders University is the right choice for you.

Course enquiries

For all course enquiries phone or email us or complete the course enquiry form.

1300 354 633

askflinders@flinders.edu.au

Bachelor of Arts

Study Arts at Flinders

Fast facts