New BA Program in Social Sciences

as a part of TEMPUS program assessment

TeSaU Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law

Prof. Gary Pollock,

Manchester Metropolitan University

Objectives:

To develop a suitable structure for the BA Social Science;

To include in the structure appropriate taught courses.

The need for a new BA program:

Limited human resources at TeSaU,

More freedom for the students while designing their own study program.

Parameters:

The Social Science Major (120 ECTS) will be composed of units from the following contributing departments:

– Journalism (currently offer a major (120 ECTS),– Sociology (currently offer a minor (60 ECTS),– Psychology (currently offer a minor (60 ECTS).

The minimal requirement is that there are 120 ECTS taken from across these three areas.

Further parameters can be added to define more precisely the “social science” experience.

Three options:

1. full optionality,

2. no optionality,

3. partial optionality.

Option 1: full optionality

Students are able to select any combination of units (subject to pre-requisites).

Option 2: no optionality

120 credits fully determined in advance (possibly with some ‘either or’ options).

Option 3: partial optionality

A list of MANDATORY courses defined in advance for a defined number of ECTS for each subject;

A further list of optional courses to make up the rest of the “social science” ECTS.

Option 3 (cntd)

Common set of requirements for each subject (mandatory ECTS),

20 Mandatory ECTS per subject = 60/120, BA paper & internship (10 + 10 ESTS), 60 Optional ECTS chosen from any of the

Sociology /Journalism / Psychology courses, restricted only by pre-requisites.

The proposed mandatory courses:

Journalism

“News Journalism” “Modern Georgian Media” “Media Law and Ethics” “Printed media” or “Electronic media”

(choice)

Required: 20 ECTS

Sociology

“Modern Social Problems” “Research methods” (choice) “Social Stratification” “Topics in Sociology” (choice)

Required: 20 ECTS

Psychology

“Social Psychology”

“Age Psychology” or “Pedagogic Psychology” (choice)

Required: 20 ECTS

Total of 60 ECTS: required

Total of 60 ECTS: chosen by students out of the rest of the courses

Advantages:

Flexibility,

Feasibility.

Disadvantages:

?