Programs
Our undergraduate teaching balances the development of long-term skills with the short-term demands of the knowledge required of serving officers. Our aim is to develop in our undergraduates the skills that they will need to become adaptable, thoughtful and innovative members of the ADF, skills that will also fit them for lifelong learning.
English
Students complete their studies in English with a sophisticated knowledge of both the Western literary heritage and their own contemporary culture. Thus, a student might read the Iliad in order to consider the ways in which concepts of heroism and leadership have changed over the centuries, whilst also studying current newspaper articles. Courses are aimed at fostering the ability to read carefully, to think critically, and to express oneself clearly. The successful student of English will emerge with a heightened awareness of language and the ways in which it is used: the cultural, historical and political dimensions of language.
More and more, the ADF requires that its officers have the capacity to respond to complex situations with sensitivity, intelligence and understanding.
"Humanities degrees teach people to think logically, write constructively and to argue with their peers. We are now finding that it's the humanities officers that are going into the higher echelons." -- Major Eric Stevenson
"English was the best kind of study to gain cultural understanding and the skills of language use." -- Capt Peter Bartu, former Aide of General Sanderson, in Cambodia
History
History seeks to understand individual and group behaviour and to explain the forces that have shaped human civilisation: social change, wars, revolutions and popular movements. Historical analysis examines the relationships between past events and between the past and the present. To understand different societies today, we need to understand their different pasts—the diversity and complexity of human development. The student of history learns how to assimilate and weigh evidence, analyse problems and balance different points of view in the context of the past and of the present. The History program includes a broad spectrum of cultures and covers a wide span of time.
Indonesia is our neighbour. A good command of the official language, Bahasa Indonesia, as well as an understanding of Indonesian society and culture will be an asset for your career in the services with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indonesian language program provides students with the ability to speak, read, write and understand an educated, standard form of Indonesian. It also provides students with an understanding of both the Indonesian context of their language studies and the inevitable problems of cross-cultural communication that are inseparable from their position as outside observers. This involves lectures on social, cultural, historical and political background at first year level and the use of written and audio-visual Indonesian language materials at upper levels that require an understanding of and illustrate particular contexts and issues.
Two streams of Indonesian language and culture are available on the ADFA campus of UNSW. Students who have little or no prior knowledge of Indonesian are required to enroll in Indonesian 1A and 1B at first-year level and may complete a major sequence by completing Indonesian 2A and 2B and Indonesian 3A and 3B at second and third year respectively. A minor may be completed by taking Indonesian 1A and 1B and Indonesian 2A and 2B.
Students who have completed Year 12 or its equivalent are required to take Intermediate Indonesian 1C and Intermediate Indonesian 1D at first-year level and may construct a minor by completing Advanced Indonesian 2C and Advanced Indonesian 2D at second-year level. Students wishing to complete a major sequence must apply for permission to undertake appropriate courses (12UC) in Indonesian at the Australian National University.
Politics
Politics explores the social and institutional realities of making and enforcing decisions; its focus is organised power. The Politics undergraduate teaching program is designed, in the first year, to introduce students to the study of politics through examining Australian democracy and the international system. In upper years, the teaching program focuses on:
• studying the political systems of countries that are of strategic significance to Australia
• exploring the nature of security, and relations between states
• and analysing security challenges in regions of significance to Australia
Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, which examines right conduct and the good life. The courses in ethics taught by HASS have an applied focus, seeking to apply ethical theory to real-life situations. Courses aim to enable students to
- identify issues that have an ethical dimension,
- recognise the principal ethical approaches to these issues and
- analyse, critique and/or defend the appropriateness of ethical decisions.
Different courses in ethics currently offered by HASS examine issues in military ethics and issues in everyday public and private life. Studying ethics may not make you a better person, but it will encourage self-awareness, clarity, and the ability to engage in ethical dialogue with others inside and outside the military.
The ethics program in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW@ADFA is supported by a major grant from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation Ethics in Leadership Program.
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