Bachelor of Health Sciences/Bachelor of Arts

2021 Deakin University Handbook

Course sub-headings

• Course overview
• Indicative student workload
• Professional recognition
• Career opportunities
• Mandatory student checks
• Pathways
• Fees and charges
• Course Learning Outcomes
• Course rules
• Course structure
• Work experience
• Third party arrangements
• Research and research-related study

Course overview

Build a degree tailored to your interests with a Bachelor of Health Sciences/Bachelor of Arts. This flexible and diverse degree will equip you with a unique skill set that will unlock wide-ranging career opportunities and give you a competitive edge in the job market. You will develop specialist knowledge in your chosen disciplines and learn how to apply critical, creative and strategic thinking to solve real-world issues.  

Your studies in the arts will arm you with transferable skills in communication, research, analysis and problem-solving, making you highly employable in many areas. You will also gain a solid grounding in multiple fields of health sciences, preparing you for a successful career in the largest and fastest-growing employment sector in Australia.  

Looking to develop a cross-disciplinary skill set that empowers you to design your own future?

This combined degree gives you the freedom to choose majors based on your interests to interconnect and expand your career prospects. You’ll study equal parts health sciences and arts, ensuring you graduate with a well-honed skill set in both disciplines.

Build a solid foundation in health while developing your skills across a range of arts, communications, humanities and social science disciplines. Create original course combinations by choosing majors including (but not limited to):

• advertising
• criminology
• disability and inclusion
• education
• family, society and health
• food studies
• health,nature and sustainability
• health promotion
• international studies
• journalism
• language and culture studies
• media
• physical activity and health
• politics and policy studies
• sociology
• sport and society.

Opportunities to pursue work-integrated learning experiences and industry practicums are available throughout the course, including the Health Science Practicum offered in third year, giving you the option to complete a 120-hour practice education placement.

You will gain invaluable experience by immersing yourself in your chosen field – whether it’s helping to design public relations campaigns for major food companies or working at grassroots level in the community through health education programs.

You will also have the opportunity to experience different cultures by taking your studies abroad. You could find yourself visiting the International Institute of Health Sciences in Sri Lanka, or studying politics and policy in Norway. Gain a global perspective that will give you an international outlook and a competitive edge.

Indicative student workload

As a student in the Faculty of Health you can expect to participate in a range of teaching activities each week. This could include classes, seminars, practicals and online interaction. You can refer to the individual unit details in the course structure for more information. You will also need to study and complete assessment tasks in your own time.

Professional recognition

Not applicable

Career opportunities

Your career outcomes will depend on the majors you complete with this degree.

Studying health sciences could lead you into careers in areas such as:

• community health
• counselling
• disability and inclusion
• environmental health
• health education
• health promotion
• nutrition
• psychological science
• regional health service planning
• sports development.

An arts degree provides you with solid transferable skills that can be applied across industries and careers. Depending on your majors, you could find yourself in fields such as:

• advertising and marketing
• business
• education
• ethnic affairs
• government
• international relations
• media
• politics and policy
• public relations.

Your majors could also help you pursue careers where your degrees overlap. Careers such as health media, food writing and public relations for health and food organisations all require the skills acquired from both health science and arts degrees.

Mandatory student checks

Any unit which contains work integrated learning, a community placement or interaction with the community may require a police check, working with children check or other check. Refer the relevant unit guide.

Pathways

This course provides a pathway to higher degree by research courses (if students undertake an additional Honours year) and other postgraduate coursework programs.

Fees and charges

Fees and charges vary depending on your course, the type of fee place you hold, your commencement year and your study load. To find out about the fees and charges that apply to you, visit the Current students fees website or our handy Fee estimator to help estimate your tuition fees.

Course Learning Outcomes

See course entry for Bachelor of Health Sciences (H300) or Bachelor of Arts (A300)

Course rules

To complete the Bachelor of Health Sciences/Bachelor of Arts students must attain 32 credit points. Most units (think of units as 'subjects') are equal to 1 credit point. In order to gain 32 credit points you will need to study 32 units (AKA 'subjects') over your entire degree. Most students choose to study 4 units per trimester and usually undertake two trimesters each year.

You must fulfil the requirements of each of the two degrees in your course of study.

The course comprises a total of 32 credit points which must include:

• 16 credit points from the Faculty of Health including 6 compulsory core units in the Bachelor of Health Sciences PLUS one major (6 credit points) and one minor (4 credit points)
• 16 credit points from the Faculty of Arts comprising two major sequences (8 credit points each) or one major sequence (8 credit points) and one minor sequence (4 credit points) as described under course A300 Bachelor of Arts. 

See course entry for Bachelor of Health Sciences (H300) or Bachelor of Arts (A300)

All commencing Faculty of Health Undergraduate and Postgraduate course work students are required to complete HAI010 Academic Integrity in their first trimester of study (0 credit point compulsory unit).

Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements. Click here for more information.

Course structure

The course structure includes 16 credit points from each of the two component courses. The 16 unit maximum size of the component degrees of combined courses does not permit students in D391 to complete two major sequences within the Health Sciences degree. For this reason, they are restricted to a major sequence and a minor sequence. The sixteen credit points within the Health Sciences component of the combined course are made up of:

• The six core units of the Bachelor of Health Sciences;
• A major sequence of six credit points (as listed above), consisting of the specified units at Levels 1, 2 and 3;
• A minor sequence of four credit points, consisting of at least one unit at Level 1 and no more than one unit at Level 3 (subject to pre-requisite requirements) from the set of approved major sequences.

Students cannot select a minor in Environmental Health, or Psychological Science, due to difficulties of sequencing and in maintaining curriculum logic.

Work experience

Work-Integrated Learning

A core unit at third-year level, based on inter-professional learning (IPL), provides students the opportunity to draw together their cross-disciplinary learning to demonstrate the knowledge and the skills they have acquired throughout the course and apply them to real-world issues. HSH324 Integrated Learning for Practice involves interdisciplinary teams working to develop responses to real-world problems for presentation to a professional audience.

Course duration - additional information

Course duration may be affected by delays in completing course requirements, such as accessing or completing work placements.

Further information

Student Central can help you with course planning, choosing the right units and explaining course rules and requirements.

• Contact Student Central

Third party arrangements

Nature of third party arrangements

Deakin College offers a subset of 1^st year subjects of the degree as part of the Diploma of Health Sciences. Students who complete the program with a WAM of at least 50, can gain entry into H300, with credit for core and other units already completed, enabling them to enter at 2^nd yr level of the degree.

Quality assurance arrangements

The units offered by Deakin College are those offered as part of the H300. Quality assurance is as for the rest of H300.

Research and research-related study

The degree includes two core units that offer research-related study, HBS108 and HSH219. HBS108 ‘Health Information and Data’ provides the basic skills necessary to be consumers and providers of health research information. The unit comprises nine topics, covering: measuring health and disease in populations, introduction to qualitative research, study design, obtaining online health information, evaluating popular health claims, introduction to quantitative research, evidence based practice including critical appraisal. HSH219 ‘Population Health: A Research Perspective’ aims to introduce students to the principles and practices of research in public health and health promotion with a focus on current population health issues using qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. The unit covers topics such as the development and expression of research aims, questions and hypotheses; the application of appropriate research methods specific to research questions; and the different ways of collecting data in various research settings. In addition, the capstone unit in the final year, HSH324, may further provide some students with opportunities to conduct research activities dependent on the nature of projects offered by employers/organisations. Finally, a range of units across the majors incorporate smaller applied research tasks, such as health needs analyses of specific groups, service profiles, social issues research etc.