UU100 is one of the four compulsory generic courses and is to be taken in the first year of full-time study and before enrolling in 200 and 300 level courses. The aim of this course is to ensure that all incoming students develop knowledge and competence in the use of computers and information resources. The course covers fundamental concepts of computers and their applications and addresses the broader imperative for students to develop the capacity to effectively locate, access, evaluate and use information effectively.

This is a core course for all undergraduate students, which must be completed in the first year of full-time study and before enrolling in 200 and 300 level courses. It supports the skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing through English in academic contexts, specifically at tertiary level. The course develops critical engagement with authentic materials from a content theme that will be of broad relevance to students from all programmes. These materials are then supplemented by a strand in which students apply the skills covered in the course to an independent research-based assignment that relates to a topic from their own discipline.

This course is a conceptual and a practical introduction to journalism which surveys the media in the South Pacific. It will focus on the practical skills of news writing for print and online media. It will be conducted through a combination of lectures and extensive practical workshops and assignments for the training newspaper Wansolwara and its website. Emphasis will be placed on writing news in plain and clear English.

This course examines the rights, responsibilities and moral obligations of journalists. Students will be familiarised with the laws of defamation, contempt of Parliament and the courts, conventions of court reporting, privacy, breach of confidentiality, and human rights. The course will also examine media ethical concepts, including the role of ethical codes, and fairness and balance in the media. The course will be delivered through formal lectures, group discussion and weekly reading.

This course introduces the key foundations of Linguistics – the scientific study of language and languages. We all use language every day, and yet many people know far less about language and languages than they think they do. This course helps students appreciate the almost infinite variety in language and shows them how the languages they speak fit into their society and culture.

This course aims to help students understand important management concepts and theories, covering the basic management functions and other important issues from a practical perspective. It provides a comprehensive and integrated introduction to the process of management in both functional and behavioural aspects. In particular, the course targets the development of human skills, personal, interpersonal and group skills by using a wide range of teaching methods that encourage student participation during tutorials.

This generic course offers an exploratory and interdisciplinary insight into ethics and the ethics of governance. It introduces students to ethical theories and philosophies (in terms of virtues, consequences and duties) and links these to structures of governance, in particular, self, political, corporate, and global governance. The theoretical framework is then used to delve into the fascinating and controversial field of applied ethics, ranging through the law, corporate and workplace ethics, social justice issues and controversial ethical dilemmas. Students will be encouraged to think critically, develop self-awareness and make responsible ethical decisions in personal, professional and applied contexts.

In this course you will be introduced to the places, histories, cultures, arts and politics of Oceania. Our interdisciplinary approach weaves together first-hand information from people of the area, supplemented with historical writings, contemporary documents and visual representations as they relate to the region. To draw upon such a range of diverse knowledge requires a navigational concept and in this class we engage the model of the waka or canoe to steer our course through five thematic areas of learning and knowing.

This course will teach skills in page making and layout, photo editing and captioning, and Internet publishing. Classes will include lectures, workshops, and current affairs news forums. Lecture topics will include texts and images, the history and development of press photography, cropping the photograph, image processing, computing, and online journalism. Students will also be assigned subediting work on the training newspaper Wansolwara.

This course examines the way language is used in the Pacific region in the current, globalised era. In the first half of the course, we introduce different frameworks through which to understand multilingualism, and we use these to examine a range of linguistic data from speech, writing, music, street signs, graffiti, text messages and social media. In the second half, we consider how best to communicate messages of contemporary importance to a target audience, learning how to design multilingual posters, webpages, video clips and other resources.

This course is an in-depth survey of the principles of marketing. The course is based on an understanding of the importance of marketing to the success of any business endeavour. While strategy and planning considerations are covered, the emphasis is on buyer behaviour and the use of the marketing mix to reach that buyer successfully. Students will receive a working understanding of the concepts and procedures of marketing in today’s environment, and its inter-relationship with other business functions. Students whose primary interests lie in other fields will go away with the foundation to understand how marketing relates to their primary area of interest.

In this course students will learn to demonstrate their ability to take responsibility as journalists and to professionally put into practice their journalism skills developed during the programme.

This course uses different frameworks, tools and techniques to analyse written, spoken and multimodal texts. We use qualitative analysis to identify the ‘stories-we-live-by’ and the ways these are constructed through different linguistic devices. This type of analysis illustrates the impact of language on the world around us and demonstrates the power of the words we choose to use whenever we communicate.

The course introduces the multiple dimensions, environments, and strategies of international marketing. General topics include the changing character of the world economy, the globalisation of markets, regional regulatory agencies, the international financial system, and the variable impacts of politics and culture on contracts and trade agreements. Strategic topics include foreign market assessment, foreign market entry, responding to competition, product modification, pricing decisions, channel selection, and cross-cultural promotion. Case studies and the preparation of a product/service export plan integrate the general understanding with concrete and practical experience.

• Target a particular sector you want to work in

e.g. Environment, Endangered Languages, Tourism, Economics, Nutrition

• Pick up general skills that will help your employability

e.g. Learn a Language, Basic Accounting, Management

• Follow your passion in any subject of interest

e.g. History, Literature, Languages and Cultures

You may design a specialist subject that works best for you, and this may include courses from different subject areas. However, you MUST seek approval for your specialist subject from the programme coordinator in advance (and seek re-approval for any later changes) to avoid any problems later on when you apply to graduate.

Number of courses

• At 100-level, you must choose 2 courses from your specialist subject.
• At 200-level, you must choose either 1 or 2 courses from your specialist subject, to make 8 courses in total.
• At 300-level, you must choose either 1 or 2 courses from your specialist subject, to make 8 courses in total.

Pre-requisites

• Check the pre-requisites for the courses you wish to take at 200-level and 300-level. You will only be allowed to take a course at a higher level, if you have already passed the pre-requisites listed in the handbook & calendar for that course.

Semester offerings

• Check which semester all your courses are offered.
• Note that course offerings can sometimes change from year to year. Always check the current year’s handbook & calendar online.