UTS v UNSW (1 Viewer)

[eViLnUt]

Hi, I'm a yr 12 student considering the following two degrees:

UNSW: B Sc (Media and Comm)...this course allows me to do a double major with psychology which I have an interest in, but I'm not sure about the media/comm course and how it fares against other courses of a similar nature elsewhere.

UTS: B Communications (Media Arts + Production): I'm impressed with the course and its technical and practical nature (although I do understand that theres a lot of theory involved in the first yr).

So what I want to know is...what are the two courses like? If anyone has done or is doing one of the above 2 courses, can you pls give me an opinion on it and what it's like (i.e. content, interest...etc.)?

 

[kami]

Hi, I'm a yr 12 student considering the following two degrees:

UNSW: B Sc (Media and Comm)...this course allows me to do a double major with psychology which I have an interest in, but I'm not sure about the media/comm course and how it fares against other courses of a similar nature elsewhere.

UTS: B Communications (Media Arts + Production): I'm impressed with the course and its technical and practical nature (although I do understand that theres a lot of theory involved in the first yr).

So what I want to know is...what are the two courses like? If anyone has done or is doing one of the above 2 courses, can you pls give me an opinion on it and what it's like (i.e. content, interest...etc.)?

First up, when you say BSc (Media & Comm) do you mean this or this?

In the BA or BSci in Media & Communications at UNSW you essentially study a core major involving multimedia, new media and so on. You also will be required to take up an Arts or Science major depending on the degree, however as the Science degree is required to do a certain amount of units from the Science faculty thus you'll do less media study than your classmates who do the BA. Myself, I would probably go more toward the BA since you should at least be able to sub-major in Psychology in it as well as getting a better education in what is presumably going to be your future job.

If it is the BSci in Communications at UNSW, then you will study a core major involving communications and the history & philosophy of science. The rest of your degree will be made up of either two sub-majors or one major in a science area. This degree is apparently fairly unique in the state now that USYD has withdrawn its BSci in Media & Communications so if you're interested in science journalism its pretty much the only place to go.

As regards the UTS BA in Communications, well UTS is generally regarded as having on of the best communications schools in the state but from what I've heard this course at least is very theoretical if you major in Media Arts & Production. (I do the same course but in a different major) What happens is in first year all your subjects are chosen for you and they are in four areas. Three of those areas are common to all BA in Communications students at UTS and they are:
* Communications and Media type stuff - basically study how the media interacts with our society, culture and life. For example, Rupert Murdoch's monopoly on news allowing him to influence public affairs and politics. It also discusses how and why audiences value and react to certain info. I actually find its sorta interesting, but I can't wait for second year when I don't need to do this stuff anymore. This provides most of the theory for Journalism, Info Management and Public Communications
* Sociopolitical studies - this is essentially about the social policies of our nation and how they affect the individual. For example, aboriginal rights and access to power and benefits or gay marriage and adoption rights. There is also an online component to this area. Hate this one - completely, alot of the others seem to enjoy it though.
* Cultural studies - It essentially is about investigating cultural texts and phenomena in a contemporary environment. The lectures are interesting, and so is the reading content but it is an extreme bitch to actually study. This provides the bulk of the theory for the writing[ie me] and media production subjects.

The fourth subject will be your major subject (ie media arts for you, writing for me, journalism for the next person etc.) and you'll basically study the theory of media production and what not in this and this. And that'd be first year.

In second and third year, you'll continue with cultural studies + media arts & production + an arts elective (from uts or usyd or unsw or mq etc.), though of course you will get a wider range of cultural studies and media arts subjects to choose from each semester. And thats the UTS one in a nutshell.

Also, another thing to remember about the two universities, is that UNSW will require you to do GenEds - UTS won't. Also, using electives from UNSW or USYD, you can sub-major in Psych through the UTS degree as well.

 

[eViLnUt]

Yeh I was referring to the 3994 course for UNSW.

It just seems that the UTS MAP course have a lot of options for practical and industry skills that would be much more applicable in a career, despite the first year theory, as I had mentioned before. Even the first year MAP (MAP 1 and MAP 2) seem a lot more interesting and useful than the UNSW first year courses. And yeh despite my interest in psychology, it is prob much better to get more education in a field in which I'd like to end up (i.e. film media industry), and to me UTS seems the way to go. Haha now all I have to do is make the course =P

Also what did you mean, Kami, by "using electives from UNSW or USYD, you can sub-major in Psych through the UTS degree as well." Can you elaborate on this? Or just post a link, thx =D

 

[kami]

Yeh I was referring to the 3994 course for UNSW.

It just seems that the UTS MAP course have a lot of options for practical and industry skills that would be much more applicable in a career, despite the first year theory, as I had mentioned before. Even the first year MAP (MAP 1 and MAP 2) seem a lot more interesting and useful than the UNSW first year courses. And yeh despite my interest in psychology, it is prob much better to get more education in a field in which I'd like to end up (i.e. film media industry), and to me UTS seems the way to go. Haha now all I have to do is make the course =P

I have heard though, that practical experience is rather limited in this major later on as well(UNSW may suffer the same fault, I don't know) so keep in mind that whichever you end up in you will probably also have to compensate with extra-curricular activities to get that experience.

Also what did you mean, Kami, by "using electives from UNSW or USYD, you can sub-major in Psych through the UTS degree as well." Can you elaborate on this? Or just post a link, thx =D

In the UTS degree, you can use subjects from other universities as your electives (ie the non communications subjects) so you basically get to choose 4 - 6 subjects from USYD/UNSW/MQ/UWS/UOW/OLA/TAFE in the 'arts' areas for your electives in second and third year as well as what UTS offers. And since UTS usually considers psychology to be an 'arts' subject, then there shouldn't be much of a problem.

Also, have you looked at the MQ BMedia in Multimedia or the COFA BDM? I've only heard good things about them as well and it couldn't hurt to compare them to see if that'd be what you're into.

 

[eViLnUt]

So even though UNSW considers it a science subject (psych is under the science faculty) UTS may still consider it to be "arts"? And what's a sub major you mentioned in your previous post? I mean, UTS actually has a psych subject as an elective as well, but thats it, not like a whole major or anything.

Yes I've looked at the MQ and COFA courses and I don't think they're the degrees I'm lookin for...

 

[bustinjustin]

UTS wins cos it doesn't look like Hong Kong.

Despite the fact that it's in Chinatown?

 

[kami]

So even though UNSW considers it a science subject (psych is under the science faculty) UTS may still consider it to be "arts"? And what's a sub major you mentioned in your previous post? I mean, UTS actually has a psych subject as an elective as well, but thats it, not like a whole major or anything.

Yes I've looked at the MQ and COFA courses and I don't think they're the degrees I'm lookin for...

UTS considers it to be 'arts' in its current elective line up, so there's no reason why it wouldn't regard the USYD/UNSW psych as such - though it'd probably be better to do psych via USYD as its easier on you for transport and its less lab based in comparison.

A submajor is a specific sequence of around 3 - 5 subjects, in some other unis they may refer to it as a minor. And since you recieve between 4 and 6 slots of elective subjects(depending on how much each subject is worth) you can submajor in an additional area which could come from another university if you wanted.

 

[AsyLum]

Yes I've looked at the MQ and COFA courses and I don't think they're the degrees I'm lookin for...

What exactly are you looking to do?

I'd pick the COFA and MQ courses over the UTS/UNSW ones unless I was specifically looking to do Journalism of some kind.

The outline listed for the UTS course looks like something that you do with the MQ and COFA courses anyway. Speaking from a MQ perspective, the UTS stream could be easily duplicated and supplanted with a wider range of electives (we don't restrict you to Media only units, and can easily be teamed up with music performance/production/djing/culture/etc or cultural studies or philosophy, or history, or etc etc.

 

[msh]

UTS is most famous for their design and communications degree and their faculty ranked 29th in the world according to the Times higher education.
That's why their cut-offs are freakin high for a creative arts course.:burn: :burn: :burn: :burn: :burn:

 

[Cathtastrophe]

UTS wins cos it doesn't look like Hong Kong.

i think you mean DOES look like Hong Kong

 

[jemsta]

i think you mean DOES look like Hong Kong

i see what you did there

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

UNSW? lol.

 

[§eraphim]

Science communication is just bs on a stick.