Course details

Summary

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) is Otago's most flexible undergraduate degree programme, enabling students to study from a selection of more than 40 arts and social science subjects, as well as papers offered elsewhere in the University. Academic breadth is complemented by in-depth knowledge gained through majoring in one or two subjects with the option of minors in one or two others.

Students are taught by research-active scholars, are expected to undertake a diverse range of learning tasks and are challenged to develop their intellectual independence. Graduates of the programme are well-informed, versatile, independent thinkers with the information literacy, communication, research and interpersonal skills necessary for a career or further academic study. The completed BA is an entry qualification for the PGDipArts in the major subject of the degree.

Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Philosophy, Politics and Economics is a multidisciplinary programme that incorporates an attractive and intellectually stimulating combination of three long-established and influential disciplines. There are natural affinities and common roots among several strands of Philosophy, Political Studies and Economics. For example, Economics developed from the field of Political Economy, Welfare Economics utilises concepts of social justice from Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Science has important implications for methodologies adopted in Economics and Politics. The aim of the programme is to give a broader exposure to the range of analytical approaches in these three disciplines than would be gained within any one of the traditional single-discipline majors.

Programme Requirements

100-level

• BSNS 113 Economic Principles and Policy
• ECON 112 Principles of Economics 2
• One 100-level PHIL paper (PHIL 103 Ethical Issues, recommended)
• One 100-level POLS paper (POLS 102 New Zealand Politics - Introduction, recommended)

200-level

• PHPE 201 Political Economy 1: Method, Philosophy, Applications
• ECON 201 Microeconomics or ECON 271 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
• One further 200-level ECON paper
• One 200-level PHIL paper
• One 200-level POLS paper
• one further 200-level ECON, PHIL or POLS papers

300-level

• Six 300-level ECON, PHIL, PHPE, or POLS papers, including at least one paper in each of Economics, Philosophy, and Politics.
• CLAS 340 may be substituted for one 300-level PHIL paper.

Plus 72 further points which may be taken from outside Arts

Entry criteria

The minimum requirement for students is the completion of a high school qualification plus satisfactory completion of one year's study at an approved tertiary institution or successful completion New Zealand Foundation Year programme.

We also accept the following International qualifications: International Baccalaureate: IB Diploma with a minimum of 26 points; GCE Advanced Levels: minimum grade of 8.

English Language Requirements:

IELTS score of 6.0 in the academic module (with no individual band below 6.0); Internet-based TOEFL Score of 80 (writing 20); Paper-based TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score of 550 (TWE 4.5); CIE Cambridge International Examinations Grade E or better in AS English; Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) - Overall score of 176 (with no individual band below 169); Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) - Overall score of 176 (with no individual band below 169); GCE 'A' Level or 'AS' Level English Language or English Literature - grade C or higher; GCE 'AS' Level General Paper (English) - grade C or higher; APIEL (Advanced Placement International English Language) Examination - grade 3 or higher; IB International Baccalaureate - English at Higher or Standard level in Language A: literature, Language A: language and literature, or at Higher level in Language B; Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic - Overall score of 58 with no communicative skills score below 50.