Making Curriculum Choices

In the course of Orientation Week, you will need to make decisions about the subjects you want to study in your first year. 

Rhodes University offers two kinds of degrees at the undergraduate level: professional qualifications and general formative degrees.

Professional qualifications including the LLB and BPharm degrees lead directly to a career in a particular area.

The general formative degree, such as the BA, BSocSci, BSc and BCom, exposes students to a wide range of subjects in the early years of study.  Two subjects are then chosen as ¡®majors¡¯ to study at third-year level.

Many students come to the University thinking they are going to do a ¡®BA Psychology¡¯ or a ¡®BSc, Computer Science¡¯.  This is not true. What will happen is that you will do a Bachelor of Arts degree in which Psychology may be one of your majors or a Bachelor of Science degree in which Computer Science may be a major.

There are many benefits to doing a general formative degree rather than a narrowly focused programme which leads you to careers in only one subject area.  You may well find that the area in which you think you want to study this week is actually very different to what you imagined.  You might also find that you absolutely love another subject and that this is what you want to study. Yet another advantage of a general formative degree is that it allows you to find a different way to attain your dream of graduating if you fail a subject.  The structure of the degree allows you to be guided by the Dean or another senior member of staff towards success if you do have problems along the way.

During Orientation Week, you will have the opportunity to think about what different groups of subjects can offer you by attending panel discussions where members of staff specializing in these areas and students from these areas will try to give you a taste of what they offer.  You will then have an opportunity to ask questions of the panel.

Please note that some subjects will appear in more than one panel.  

Remember, also, that you do not have to take only subjects from one-panel area.  Unlike other places, Rhodes University offers you the opportunity to combine subjects in any way you like provided your timetable will allow it. This will even include taking subjects from different faculties if you want to. Believe it or not, a combination of Music and Musicology and Mathematics of Computer Science is not unusual!

So, enjoy the week. Go to as many panels as you possibly can and expose yourself to an entirely new world of thinking and interest that has opened up to you now you are registered at Rhodes University!

Please refer to your booklet on the daily timetable.

Last Modified: Fri, 04 Feb 2022 10:31:02 SAST