Course details

Summary

In Cultural Studies, ‘culture' is understood very broadly, but with a strong emphasis on local everyday life. Cultural Studies does not follow traditional distinctions between ‘high' and ‘low' culture; a Lorde music video becomes a significant cultural text alongside, say, a classical opera.

Cultural Studies analyses many popular cultural forms: film and television, comics and graphic novels, advertising, art, new media, music, fashion, sport and leisure to name just a few. These domains are shown to be extremely powerful political forces in shaping our societies and our identities.

The contemporary theories of culture view it as something dynamic, living and changeable. This leads to questions of how culture is produced, how we interpret culture, how culture can be preserved or destroyed, and how do new commodity models, communications and information technology and globalisation affect our culture?

The Certificate in Arts (CertArts) is designed for you if you want to study at university level without having to commit to several years of study. It is also an option if you want to take a few courses for interest or study part-time.

Qualification structure and duration

The Certificate in Arts is made up of five courses (a minimum of 75 points) at 100 and/or 200-level.

It can be completed full-time, or over one to two years of part-time study.

You can transfer the credits you gain during the Certificate in Arts to the Bachelor of Arts (and some other degrees), as long as you have not graduated with the certificate.

Further study

The Certificate in Arts can be used as a stepping stone to a Bachelor of Arts.

Career opportunities

You can construct a degree that is quite generalised (perhaps suited for a teaching career) or relatively specialised (eg, film and media; sexuality and gender; places, spaces and technologies; bicultural studies; cultural identity and politics; environmentalism and human-animal studies).

Cultural Studies leads to careers in fields where a wide analytic grasp of contemporary culture is required eg, the media industries, journalism, publishing, writing, website design, advertising, musicology, public relations, teaching and education, advocacy, policy analysis and arts management.

Because of the breadth and flexibility of a graduate's understanding of culture, they are also able to move among such fields easily.

Entry criteria

Admission to UC with University Entrance, or equivalent, is required to enrol for a Certificate in Arts. Applicants must have completed New Zealand University Entrance through NCEA; or Cambridge International Examinations (CIE); or International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) or any other equivalent overseas qualification.

Other English language requirements: TOEFL PBT with a minimum score of 550 and TWE with a minimum score of 4.5; CCEL EAP Level 2 with a minimum C+ grade; CAE or CPE minimum score of 169 with at least 162 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE with an overall score of 57 and no PTE communicative skills score below 50.