UndergraduateArts & Design
Bachelor of Arts
Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia
About this program
CDU pitches its Bachelor of Arts around a genuinely distinctive regional angle: rather than being a generic humanities degree, it's built around issues facing Northern Australia, Indigenous communities, and South-East Asia, which makes sense given Darwin sits closer to Dili and Denpasar than to Sydney. Students choose from nine majors, including options rarely paired together at one institution: Digital Communication and Indigenous Studies sit alongside more familiar choices, and an Architecture major (unusual for a BA) covers representation, spatial design, and industry-standard drafting tools with a tropical-north focus.
The Indigenous Studies major is arguably the strongest reason to choose CDU specifically over an east-coast university for this degree; it's taught by staff embedded in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and covers philosophy, sociology, and Indigenous perspectives in a way that's hard to replicate somewhere without that geographic and cultural proximity. The Digital Communication major, meanwhile, tracks social media, media ethics, and multi-screen communication, practical skills for content and comms roles rather than a literary-criticism-heavy media studies track.
As with most CDU undergraduate degrees, the BA is available fully online, on campus, or mixed, and can be taken part-time, which matters given a meaningful chunk of the student body balances study with work or family responsibilities in regional NT towns.
Fees & duration
English test scores
Verified cdu.edu.au ↗
Course structure
Study plan in 4 parts
- core arts units in critical thinking
- research methods
- and an introductory unit in the chosen major
- Majors offered (choose one, minor optional): Digital Communication
- Indigenous Studies
- Architecture
- Creative Writing
- History
- Politics and International Relations
- Society and Culture
- Asian Studies
- Screen and Media
- Years 2-3: major-specific sequence plus free electives
- culminating in a capstone or independent research project
- 3 years full-time / 6 years part-time
- on campus
- online
- or blended
Career & PR pathway
Which careers in Arts & Design lead to skilled migration depends on the occupation, not the degree title. See the skilled occupation lists guide for which occupations are on each list, and the points calculator to check where you stand.
Admissions
Year 12 completion, ATAR approx 60 or equivalent
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