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?

This postgraduate diploma is ideal for graduates wishing to undertake advanced study in a humanities or social science specialisation. Like its sister programme, the Postgraduate Certificate in Arts, the PGDipArts is very flexible; students can choose between a number of course combinations, and it offers a convenient taught pathway to other postgraduate study opportunities.

A graduate with a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts will have an advanced level of knowledge in one discipline or area of specialisation cultivated over a full year of study or equivalent. During this time they will have developed such skills as:

• the ability to analyse and evaluate academic literature in that area
• the ability to synthesize information and communicate their findings in both oral and written form
• self-directed learning and intellectual independence.

Qualification structure and duration

A student must complete at least 120 points from taught courses, as approved by the Head of Department and the Dean of Arts.

Further study

Postgraduate Diploma in Arts graduates are well positioned to continue their studies. Subject to the approval of the Dean of Arts (and provided the courses fall within the time limits for the higher award), a student may transfer PGDipArts courses passed with a B grade or higher to:

the Bachelor of Arts with Honours

the coursework section of a master's degree (there are a number of taught master's operated by the College of Arts).

UC also offers a research-based Master of Arts and the Doctor of Philosophy.

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, museology, 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

Candidates must have qualified for a Bachelor of Arts or an equivalent degree and satisfied the prerequisites for the subject concerned. Prerequisites vary between departments, but normally good grades in 300-level courses in that subject are required.

Other English language requirements: TOEFL PBT with a minimum score of 575 and TWE with a minimum score of 4.5; CCEL EAP Level 2 with a minimum B+ grade; CAE or CPE score of 176 with a minimum of 169 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE with an overall score of 64 and no PTE communicative skills score below 58.