Studying a language along with Engineering (1 Viewer)

[srsly_br0]

Out of curiosity, how many people take up a language at uni whilst studying engineering?

Because my language skills in both Korean and Japanese used to be fluent (now deteriorating) I would like to re-study either language at uni along with Civil Engineering. Is such an act unheard of? Or is it common?

I realise studying and graduating with a second or third language will greatly boost your chances of employment, but is it worth it? Or will the workload be too much?

Thanks.

 

[srsly_br0]

bump

 

[brent012]

Definitely not uncommon! I go to UTS so i'll give examples from there, i'm not sure what other unis have to offer but there are no doubt similiar courses. At UTS you can do a combined degree with engineering and international studies (Bachelor of Engineering Bachelor of Arts in International Studies), as part of that course you would complete a year of study overseas in the second half of your course. You still do the same amount of subjects each semester but the degree is a year longer. As for if it's worth it, that is up to you to decide. At other unis there are definitely similiar majors offered (I think most of them are under B Arts, every uni has different names for them) but i'm not sure if they all include the year overseas - so you'll have to research that yourself or wait for someone else to reply.

An interesting thing about combined engineering degrees at UTS is that the engineering practice program is not compulsory. A typical engineering degree at like UNSW or Usyd would be 4 years long, but at UTS there are two compulsory 6 month internships making it 5 years long. With combined degrees you can still finish in 5 years if you don't do the engineering practice program (which afaik is how they are offered through UAC), but then you'd have to do a 12 week placement as a requirement of graduating (same with any Engineers Australia accredited degree). I added the practice program on to my combined degree (but with business, not international studies) which is just done by a simple internal transfer.

 

[srsly_br0]

Definitely not uncommon! I go to UTS so i'll give examples from there, i'm not sure what other unis have to offer but there are no doubt similiar courses. At UTS you can do a combined degree with engineering and international studies (Bachelor of Engineering Bachelor of Arts in International Studies), as part of that course you would complete a year of study overseas in the second half of your course. You still do the same amount of subjects each semester but the degree is a year longer. As for if it's worth it, that is up to you to decide. At other unis there are definitely similiar majors offered (I think most of them are under B Arts, every uni has different names for them) but i'm not sure if they all include the year overseas - so you'll have to research that yourself or wait for someone else to reply.

An interesting thing about combined engineering degrees at UTS is that the engineering practice program is not compulsory. A typical engineering degree at like UNSW or Usyd would be 4 years long, but at UTS there are two compulsory 6 month internships making it 5 years long. With combined degrees you can still finish in 5 years if you don't do the engineering practice program (which afaik is how they are offered through UAC), but then you'd have to do a 12 week placement as a requirement of graduating (same with any Engineers Australia accredited degree). I added the practice program on to my combined degree (but with business, not international studies) which is just done by a simple internal transfer.

Thanks for your detailed response!

So would taking up a combined degree in Engineering as well as International Studies (hopefully Korean) mean that it is compulsory to study for 5 years (this is for UNSW or USyd, since UTS is different as you say)? Also, if I have to study overseas as part of the International Studies course, what happens to Engineering-related work? Do I continue on in the selected country's university?

 

[brent012]

It'd be 5 years everywhere, if you wanted to do the internships at UTS it'd be 6 years. I'm not sure what you'd do in the other country - depends on which uni you end up at (both here and over there).