Bachelor of Arts

The Bachelor of Arts is the flagship of what Melbourne branded the "Melbourne Model" back in 2008, a deliberate break from the old direct-entry professional degree system, built on the premise that a broad undergraduate degree followed by a graduate professional qualification (law, teaching, and so on) produces better-rounded professionals than jumping straight into vocational training at eighteen. Whatever you think of the theory, it means Melbourne's BA students take "breadth" subjects outside the arts faculty as a graduation requirement, so an English major will have at least a passing formal exposure to something like a science or commerce subject.

Melbourne's arts faculty is old and large enough that the major list runs to dozens of options, from the expected (History, Philosophy, English) to less common combinations available through the flexible major-plus-minor structure. What distinguishes the degree in practice is less any single subject and more the fact that most students treat it explicitly as a stepping stone: a strong share go on to the JD, Master of Teaching, or a specialist graduate degree, and the university's own advising infrastructure is built around that pathway logic rather than treating the BA as a terminal qualification.

Politics and international relations, and the various area-studies majors (Asian studies especially, given Melbourne's history of investment in the field), tend to have a stronger research culture behind them than at some other Australian arts faculties, since the university has kept dedicated research centres running in those areas for decades.