Foundation Studies Program (Fast Track) - Arts (X0G:1) (0100809) + Diploma of Arts - Philosophy (A1A) (0100746)

Program Description Foundation Studies Program (Fast Track) - Arts (X0G:1) (0100809): The Foundation Studies program is a direct academic pathway to first-year undergraduate degree study, or an equivalent. The program acts as a bridging course for international students who wish to study a university undergraduate degree course but who don’t yet meet academic requirements and/or have the English language skills for tertiary study.

To successfully complete the program, students must achieve a 50% pass in all units, including English.

Upon successful completion of the course, graduates can enter one of the University of Tasmania’s undergraduate degree courses.

Diploma of Arts - Philosophy (A1A): The Diploma of Arts provides students with opportunities to interpret human culture and behaviour from different perspectives and periods. Their studies will explore today’s big questions. They will learn how to support the social and economic development of the human race and/or to be immersed in creativity, performance and innovation.

This award is designed to allow students to choose their path: it can be the first year of Bachelor of Arts study, or they may enroll in this degree to pursue their passion and undertake one of the majors in the Bachelor of Arts. The Diploma of Arts gives them the flexibility to choose from a wide range of subjects with over twenty named majors and minors, they can select subjects to build their knowledge, and electives to enhance skills.

Studying Philosophy allows students to ask (and occasionally answer) the very biggest of questions. What makes for a meaningful life? What can we know? What is the nature of the world? What kind of societies are just? Philosophy explores fundamental questions about the human condition, relevant for people at all times and in all places, but equally arising out of the specifics of each life – whether in University of Tasmania or anywhere else. It considers problems and concerns arising from art, literature, science, law, religion, and many other human endeavors, along with the basic matter of an ethical engagement with the world. Philosophy also gives them skills in analysis, reasoning, and clear and cogent communication – highly valued attributes across all study areas in the Bachelor of Arts as well as contemporary professions.

In this major students will encounter philosophical issues from different perspectives across both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. In the first year, they will study some of the central branches of philosophy – ethics and political philosophy, metaphysics, and epistemology. In the second year students will explore the history of philosophical thinking, in ancient Greece, the Buddhist tradition and the early modern world in Europe. By third year they will be investigating current issues: reading major modern philosophical texts, examining the connections between philosophy and other fields of inquiry, and bringing philosophical work to bear on contemporary problems.