This five-year degree offers a comprehensive and flexible combined degree program that qualifies you as an accredited social worker, while also allowing you to enhance your qualification with majors and minors that complement the Bachelor of Social Work. While this combined degree requires a major or minor in Sociology, or a minor in Social Policy, you can choose another major or minor in various interest areas such as diversity studies, gender studies, Aboriginal Studies, or philosophy. You'll undertake integrated studies in social sciences, social policy and social work theory and practice, with a strong emphasis on Australian and comparative social welfare studies. In the last two years of the degree all students undertake the professional social work program, which includes two fieldwork placements supervised by highly skilled and experienced practitioners in a variety of settings. We develop field education learning expectations across the program and aim to develop values, skills and knowledge for levels from beginner to a practitioner capable of meeting the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Practice Standards.
In the Biblical Studies and Classical Hebrew major, you will learn how to read the Bible, both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament, in a more informed and responsible way, exploring narrative, law, poetic, wisdom, prophetic and apocalyptic texts. Junior Biblical Studies units deal with the biblical text in English and teach the methods needed in order to understand what biblical books were trying to communicate in their ancient setting, the foundation of all further discussion about the message of these books. Senior units build on these skills with the English text and introduce you to the methods necessary to understand each distinctive type of biblical literature. As part of the major, you are encouraged to take courses in classical Hebrew that will enable you to translate and understand the scriptures in their original language. The language courses will expose you to the multiple levels of pre-Modern Hebrew, focusing on the Bible but also studying the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient inscriptions as well as the writings of the sages and medieval commentaries on the Bible. Students who choose to learn Classical Hebrew acquire the skills for advanced research on the Bible required for postgraduate study. Whatever combination of units you choose, by the end of the major, you will have mastered skills for better understanding the biblical texts in their ancient historical, literary, and cultural context.
