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This program is designed for high achieving law students in the Bachelor of Social Science/ Bachelor of Laws program who wish to undertake an extended level of study and research in Law.
Study options
FULL TIME
5 years
PART TIME
10 years
Start times
Autumn
March
(2024)
Social Science and Laws at Western
The Bachelor of Social Science aims to expand understanding of the social world in three ways: through social theory, social research and the applications of these ideas and knowledge to practice through social engagement. It provides a wide base for understanding issues in the complex, culturally diverse and ever-changing social environment of the 21st century.
The Bachelor of Laws (Honours) program satisfies the academic degree requirements for admission to practice as an Australian lawyer. Students will engage in collaborative face-to-face problem and case-based learning, will be supported by online learning materials, and will participate in authentic assessment to develop knowledge and skills. The program provides students with a broad progressive legal education with a strong practical orientation to the law. Students develop skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, research, communication, collaboration, self-management, and ethical and professional awareness and judgement. Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in legal advocacy, negotiation, and legal technology and extend their professional and learning experiences through work integrated learning, clinical placement and international exchange engagements.
Law subjects are available at Campbelltown and Parramatta campuses. Social Science subjects are available at various campuses (mainly Bankstown and Kingswood), depending on the subjects chosen.
Professional accreditation
Our graduates from the Bachelor of Laws are eligible to apply to the Legal Profession Admission Board for admission to legal practice in NSW after undertaking prescribed practical legal training.
Learn from the best
Western Sydney University has been ranked in the Top 200 Universities for Sociology, in this year's QS World University Rankings by Subject.
Program structure
The program structure is outlined in our handbook. Here you can view all of the subjects you will be studying.
Social Anthropology is the study of humans and the cultures they create. The major in Anthropology offers students the opportunity to examine social patterns and practices across cultures, to discover similarities and differences between cultures, and to understand the processes by which humans organise and create meaning.
Areas of focus include the development of anthropology as a discipline; globalisation and culture; power and politics; gender and sexuality; identity and belonging; ethnography and ethnographic methods; indigenous peoples and nation states. Specific attention is given to cultures of Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and to cross cultural interactions, at both global and local levels.
The major seeks to equip students with multi-cultural knowledge as well as to provide a thorough grounding in research methods and ethics with utility in a variety of professional and academic contexts.
The Child and Community major provides a comprehensive introduction to a range of social sciences related areas and a strong grounding in contemporary issues facing children and their families from a critical perspective. This major provides a good foundation for people interested in a career in the human services with a particular interest in children.
This criminology major offers students the opportunity to study crime and criminal justice in a critical way that particularly stresses social and cultural definitions of criminality and the reactions to it.
Areas of focus include criminal justice institutions and practices; the development of criminology as a discipline and its various strands; forms and patterns of victimisation; crime prevention strategies and debates; aspects of juvenile justice; the evolution of prisons and different forms of punishment; law enforcement and surveillance; violence, gender and crime; cultural depictions of crime and contemporary debates in criminology.
Students in this major examine the geography of contemporary Australian cities and regions. Geography is the integrated study of people, places and environments. The cutting edge interests of today’s Geographers include post-colonialism, the emergence of global information economies, indigenous issues, class and cultural disparities, population movement, sexuality and space, and the global diffusion of popular culture.
Urban Studies is a newer discipline focused on social justice within the city, through its critical assessments of peoples’ access to scarce urban resources, such as housing, transport, education and employment. The political, economic, and cultural forces that shape cities and urban policy are the key concerns of the Urban Studies curriculum.
These applied interests in urban well-being and city structure are the intellectual basis for the Urban Planning profession. The Geography and Urban Studies major is a compulsory component of the University’s accredited Planning course.
In a highly mobile world (migration, tourism, media and communications, travel and transport) and in contemporary life where the preservation of historical and natural environments present as one of the major challenges facing all societies, heritage has become a touchstone for social and cultural identity, our understanding of modernity, peace and development, our senses of citizenship, custodianship and community.
At the same time heritage places have become significant tourist destinations and so in a world of flows and networks, the heritage-tourism relationship is a critical one. In the 21st century it is impossible to disentangle the two.
This major introduces contemporary heritage issues and provides an in-depth understanding of tourism as a social phenomenon. It enables a critical examination of the relationship between heritage and tourism in number of settings within Australia (including Indigenous Australia) and internationally.
The Peace and Development Studies major is concerned with methods for promoting peace, human rights and sustainability. It involves a critical analysis of inequalities of power and opportunity that lead to international and local conflict, social dislocation and environmental degradation.
Students will examine the structural causes of racist and gendered violence, environmental crises, forced migration, poverty, resource conflict, and inter-generational inequity. The inter-related network of solutions includes empowerment and self-determination, sustainable living, constructive development, peacemaking and peace building. These require understanding of the theories and method for identifying, measuring and resolving conflict and environmental degradation. The assumptions and failings of traditional development practice are critically assessed.
Students will engage social theory within an interdisciplinary and applied framework, at local, national and international levels. The major is comprised of three fields: 1) structural inequality, social justice & human rights; 2) development and sustainability; 3) peace and humanitarian responses/actions.
The major in Sociology provides students with a thorough training in the methods, theories and select leading areas of contemporary sociology. As well as units in which methods and theories are taught, through the social science core, students enrolled in the Sociology major will have opportunities to study a number of particular themes from a sociological perspective, including inequalities, deviance, identities, gender, religion, medicine and health care, ethnicity and migration, and the family, among other possibilities.
Fees and delivery
Fees: Varies depending on subjects selected. View available subjects in our handbook.
For further information on University fees, please visit Fees and University Costs.
Delivery: On campus
Fees: AUD $33,960*
Delivery: On campus
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Your Career
As a graduate in combined Social Science and Law you can look forward to career opportunities including:
- Solicitor or barrister
- Criminal prosecutor
- Human rights advocate
- Corporate legal advisor in the banking or finance industries
- Legal advisor to an interest group, such as the Aboriginal Legal Service
- Social policy analysis
Your Career
Human Rights Advocate
Working in Human Rights involves reporting on and attempting to remedy violations of the basic rights of humankind, social, civil, cultural or political. You may visit victims, interact with government leaders and attend trials.
Solicitor
Solicitors provide legal advice, prepare and draft legal documents, and conduct negotiations on behalf of clients on matters associated with the law.
Barrister
Barristers receive briefs and verbal instructions concerning cases from Solicitors, other specialist Legal Professionals and clients to plead cases before civil, criminal and industrial courts and other tribunals.
Policy Analyst
Policy Analysts collect and analyse information and data to develop and analyse policies guiding the design, implementation and modification of government and commercial operations and programs.
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*The tuition fees quoted above are the fees for the normal full-time study load of the program (80 credit points) per annum, unless the total duration of the program is less than 80CP. International students will be subject to a variable fee regime; i.e. enrolled students will be required to pay fees during their program based on the approved fee for each calendar year. Fee changes (if any) will occur at 1 January each calendar year. Students who extend their program past the normal finish date of the program will be required to pay additional fees based on the prevailing fee level. Western Sydney University is a multi-campus institution. The University reserves the right to alter the location of its programs between campuses and other locations as necessary. Students should be aware of the possibility of change of location for the whole or part of programs for which they enrol and should plan for the need to travel between Western Sydney campuses.
** Lowest Selection Rank
