At UTS we adopt a unique socio-cultural approach to international studies which means that
we are more interested in sensitizing student to what goes on below the surface of nationalism
and national narratives.
All of our students head towards a country destination where they’ll spend a year studying
so we school them in the background of the history and culture and politics of that culture.
And so we prepare students to go overseas by giving them two years of language instruction
so that when they go there they can see the ways that country works in all its complexity.
I chose UTS because they’re the only university that I know of where you can go on international
studies for a whole year.
I feel now that I’ve done international studies as well, I’m actually looking to
go to an agency that has international offices so I can get a bit of experience first off
in advertising in Australia and then hopefully move overseas.
I’ve encountered these idea and these cultures that I knew nothing about.
I didn’t know I was interested in politics or economics until I was over there and finding
out how these things effect the people who I was interacting with on a daily basis and
who I became very close to.
I did my social inquiry placement in Argentina, I also had the opportunity to do all the course
work here at UTS which is a great experience to have the course work here and have the
experience to do it over seas.
I was also able to work in Spanish and English at the same time.
When I was away in Argentina I loved every moment of it.
The lucky thing about going to South America is that you don’t just have one country
to practice your Spanish in for instance.
When I was in Japan I experienced many things, and one of the highlights of my trip was me
being about to use the language, Japanese, where I learned at UTS, and I used it in Japan
in real life conversations with people.
It’s almost like a hidden curriculum where you learn about being confident about yourself,
and that is something that you can’t get at any other university.
The Diploma in Languages is taken concurrently with any undergraduate or post graduate degree
or program at UTS.
The course allows students to learn a language and about the corresponding cultures or societies,
over six semesters.
Languages on offer include French and German, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian.
Global Studies is about the international system.
It’s about the history of how we came to have globalisation.
Probably the biggest unique feature of global studies at UTS is our professional majors.
All of our students do a whole major’s worth of study in a professional area as well as
the studies they do on globalisation.
I wanted to take a degree that showed me another part of the world, taught me about different
problems within the world, and taught me how to take action on those problems.
During my degree I did two internships so it has really helped me to pick a job now
as well.