Welcome, learners and parents, to this open day exhibition of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
I am Prof Vasti Roodt and I am the vice dean for teaching and learning in this Faculty.
Some of you are visiting our online exhibition today with some idea of what you want to study.
Some of you are here to find out which degree programmes we offer and whether
any of these will be a good fit for you.
You can think of a degree programme as a basket that contains a specific group of subjects.
Each subject is offered by a specific department in our Faculty.
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is made up of 18 departments.
You can pay a virtual visit to all of them to find out more about the subjects on offer.
You can choose out of 16 possible degree programmes in our Faculty, depending on which
subjects and subject combinations most appeal to you. The 16 degree programmes are
Humanities; Social Dynamics; Language and Culture; Data Science; Drama and Theatre Studies;
International Studies; Social Work; Human Resources; Music and BMus;
Development and Environment; Political, Philosophical, and Economic Studies or PPE;
Law; Social Informatics; Sport Science; and Visual Arts.
If you visit our general information page, you will be able to watch videos of some of our
alumni telling you about the degree programmes they had completed in our Faculty
and how they have used those degrees to build their careers.
A degree programme in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences will equip you with the
knowledge and skills for a wide range of careers. In this Faculty we focus on cultivating skills
such as critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and collaboration,
as well as interpersonal and intercultural communication skills.
Our students also acquire the necessary research and decision-making skills that are essential for
tackling complex problems in the real world. Our graduates today have successful careers
in teaching, journalism, government, think tanks, technology and innovation companies,
counselling, business analysis, academia, the performing arts, music technology, social work,
the visual arts, graphic design, jewellery design, acting, directing and scriptwriting,
sport science, sport psychology, biokinetics and fitness, and that is only to name a few
possible career options for students with degrees from our Faculty.
We are pretty confident that when you arrive at university in 2023 the worst of the pandemic will
be over and you will be attending all your lectures in person.
But we have learned that COVID can upset even the best laid plans.
So, if it is not yet safe for students to return to the classroom in large numbers, we will continue with
our hybrid teaching system, which means that you will attend face-to-face lectures in smaller groups,
while students not in the classroom will follow the lectures online.
But ret assured, we are doing everything we can to get all of our students back in the classroom sooner rather than later.
You may have some questions about the language in which you will study.
Here are the basic facts about the language of teaching and learning in our Faculty.
We strongly support multilingualism because we believe that exposure to different languages
expands our understanding of the world and of the people with whom we share this world.
All our undergraduate subjects, except in the language departments, are offered in dual medium.
This means that things like course outlines, PowerPoint slides,
assignments, and assessments are all available in English and Afrikaans,
and where we have the resources, also in isiXhosa. Students are free to write their tests, exams,
and essays in either English or Afrikaans and to make use of our inhouse interpretation services.
In the classroom everything is explained at least in English so that while you might hear
Afrikaans, you won’t have to worry that you are missing out on any explanations.
And if something is explained in English, you can rest assured that you will be able
to access support in Afrikaans, and again, where feasible, in isiXhosa.
Before I say goodbye, I would like to encourage you to go to the general information page of our
open day exhibition and to click on the video, “Take a Journey with us Through the BA World”.
This will give you a glimpse of life in our Faculty and on the Stellenbosch Campus.
Be sure to visit all 18 of our virtual department stalls to find out what the different subjects on
offer are and how these subjects fit into the different degree programmes.
Lecturers and students from all of the departments will also be available to answer your questions
during the live online sessions today.
You can find each department’s schedule on their departmental page.
I also invite you to join me and our recruitment officers for our own Q&A session.
You can find the schedule for that session on the general information page.
Thank you for joining me today. I hope to see many of you pursuing a degree in the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences next year. Until then, goodbye, totsiens, salani kakuhle.