Methodology

An award program that represented a Bachelor of Arts for each institution was identified. All data gathered was analysed through a standard framework document, which became the institutional 'profile' and manifested as a 12 page document. The frameworks were used to develop trends across the programs.

The project team adopted a historical/comparative analysis approach (Ruschemeyer, D., and Mahoney, J. (2003). As much of the data only came to light during the investigation, an iterative theory building process was used. (Kerssens-van Drongelen, 2001).

Data sources

The project team worked with existent data relying on primary data rather than second hand data.

Primary sources included the following quantitative and qualitative sources:

• DEST (now renamed DEEWR) data
• Data drawn from the Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS) and Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ)
• Course outlines, program structures and details gathered from institutional 'course finder' websites and calendars
• An online survey of those engaged in the teaching of these programs
• Semi-structured interviews conducted telephonically or 'face to face' with sixty seven people from a range of roles

Secondary sources included the following:

• existing institutional or centre reports of investigations into particular areas such as attrition or employability
• institutional strategic plans and program review documents
• facility or school websites, program handbooks and program flyers or publicity materials
• literature pertaining into higher education curriculum, teaching and academic work in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and graduate employability
• media and press releases to develop an understanding of contemporary issues.

Much of the data used is available for local use and analysis from this website including:

• List of Bachelor of Arts degrees and related degrees by institution
• Graduate attributes
• Work Integrated Learning
• Student Exchange programs
• Disciplines taught as part of the degree
• Bachelor of Arts Student demographics 2001 - 2006
• Graduate destinations 2001 - 2006
• Graduate satisfaction with course 2001 - 2006
• AUQA reports pertaining to Bachelor of Arts degrees
• Projects dealing with Bachelor of Arts issues
• Core courses within programs

Project definitions

For the purposes of this study, an Arts program is taken from the DEST "Society and Culture" Coding that includes 0901 Political Science and Policy Studies; 0903 Studies in Human Society; elements within 0911 Justice and Law Enforcement; 0913 Librarianship, Information Management and Curatorial Studies; 0915 Language and Literature 0917 Philosophy and Religious Studies; 0919 Economics and Econometrics and 0999 Other Society and Culture. It also includes the Creative Arts 1007 code: Communication and Media Studies. It excludes therefore programs like Bachelor of Arts (Public Relations), Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of Arts (Psychology).

Arts programs described in this report are programs that are humanities or social sciences focused; not accredited or dependent on a professional body for benchmarking; allow some level of flexibility in terms of choice for students; and are single degree undergraduate programs.

Purpose of profile

This profile focuses on the award Bachelor of Arts. It is designed to provide a baseline of what Bachelor of Arts award programs look like across the Australian Higher Education Sector in 2008 and to enable benchmarking.

Award programs described in this profile

The first part of this profile describes the details of the award Bachelor of Arts as offered in 2008. This description is for the Bachelor of Arts award only. It does not include tagged or named programs such as Bachelor of Arts (International Studies), double degrees or honours. The second part of the profile describes the Bachelor of Arts award in contrast to other Arts awards offered by this institution fitting the definition used above. These award programs may not be offered by the same host Faculty as that which offers the Bachelor of Arts award.