Postgraduate course information

Applications

Applicants need to lodge an application through the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) or make a direct application at the UTS: Communication Postgraduate Information Evening. For most courses, applicants can be made an offer if they possess a bachelor's degree, a master's degree or a graduate diploma in any field of study, or a graduate certificate in the same field of study. Applicants who do not possess the relevant qualification must submit a CV and personal statement outlining their educational and professional achievements. Additional documentation is required for the Master of Arts in Creative Writing (C04109) and Master of Arts in Non-fiction Writing (C04244). Further information is available at:

Postgraduate coursework

UTS: Communication offers graduate coursework programs in:

• information and knowledge management
• international studies
• journalism
• media arts and production
• public communication, and
• writing.

Within each program, courses may be offered at the level of graduate certificate, graduate diploma or master's degree.

Most programs are articulated so that students can progress through the program at their own pace and more effectively meet their individual study and development needs. This also allows students to enter the program at a point appropriate to their qualifications and experience.

The graduate programs are normally structured as follows:

• master's degrees: 72 credit points
• graduate diplomas: 48 credit points
• graduate certificates: 24 credit points.

Students who successfully complete the graduate certificate or graduate diploma and who are admitted to a more advanced-level course in the program are eligible for recognition of prior learning in the more advanced course for completed subjects.

The graduate program generally consists of subjects from 200 to 500 level, with a master's degree requiring some subjects at 500 level.

All graduate courses are fee-paying courses.

Typical programs

The typical programs provided for each course indicate a suggested pattern of enrolment depending on subject load and semester commencement.

Subject availability

Subjects in the graduate programs are normally offered every semester or every year. Classes proceed in a given semester only when there is sufficient demand. UTS: Communication reserves the right to cancel a class or a subject if it is not viable.

Electives

Where course requirements allow a free choice of electives, students may select subjects from graduate programs in UTS: Communication or subjects from other course areas in the University. Students may select subjects beyond the lists of elective subjects for particular courses with the approval of the graduate adviser. Not all subjects are available every semester.

Progression rules

Postgraduate students are advised that they may be excluded from a course if they exceed the maximum time allowed for completion of that course (section 10.5 of the University Rules).

Postgraduate research

UTS: Communication's research office prepares an information booklet, Applying for a Research Degree, which contains the selection criteria and details of supplementary information required by the faculty from course applicants.

The booklet is available from the research degrees administrator:

Application forms are available from the University Graduate School or at:

Applicants should contact one of the faculty's research strength directors and potential supervisors to discuss their proposed research project prior to submitting their application.

The deadline for applications for all applicants wanting to commence the following March is the final working day in October. In the event of a mid-year intake, the deadline is the last week in May.

Supervision

UTS: Communication has the capacity to supervise theses in the fields of:

• cultural studies
• digital media and the social sciences
• information studies
• journalism
• media arts
• new media and cultural theory
• public communication
• public history
• public media
• social activism
• writing.

Within these broad fields there are specific areas of supervision capacity, which change slightly each year.

UTS: Communication research centres and strengths

Cosmopolitan Civil Societies

The Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre (CCS) aims to develop a better understanding of social change and cultural cohesion in Australia and other cosmopolitan societies. The centre's research interest is at the intersection of conflict and cohesion, and in how division can be transformed into dialogue, recognition and inclusion. Its research programs focus on social action, community capacity, migration and cultural diversity, and aims to inform policy-making for social and cultural sustainability.

The CCS research initiative draws on the expertise of the University's teaching and research staff in the areas of management, education, communication, cultural studies, social change, social inquiry, leisure, sport and tourism, international studies, urban sociology, sustainability, community studies, finance and economics, built environment, engineering, globalisation and law.

Research areas include:

• collective action and learning
• human rights and social justice
• migration, cultural diversity and racism
• strengthening civil societies.

Students research areas are:

• community capacity building
• migration, cultural diversity and cosmopolitan civil societies
• non-profit and community organisations
• social action.

Transforming Cultures

After 10 years, Transforming Cultures (TfC) is well established internationally in both scope and reputation. It focuses on interdisciplinary cultural and social research, sponsoring innovative projects with local impact in Australia and the Asia–Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. Projects include an examination of 'cultures of place', cultural citizenship, experimental history and the culture of memory, and international activism. The centre also seeks to develop and report accounts of change and intervention in a globalising world. One current major focus is India, a new economic powerhouse in the region.

The Transforming Cultures research centre explores cultures in the process of transformation as well as the (technological and other) cultures that are transforming societies across the globe. TfC researchers interrogate the social and cultural technologies that are transforming individuals, cultures and the societies of which they are part and on which they act. These include technologies of the body, of communication and of transculturation.

Project areas are:

• cultural frictions (convenor: Devleena Ghosh)
• environment, political ecologies and spatial cultures (convenor: Heather Goodall)
• experience-based inquiry (convenor: Catherine Robinson)
• experimental histories and cultures of memory (convenor: Katrina Schlunke)
• oceans and borders (convenor: Devleena Ghosh)
• transforming communications (contact: Tanja Dreher).

TfC researchers are drawn from across the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies, gender studies, history, international studies, philosophy and sociology.

Student research areas are:

• social frictions and cultural citizenship (convenor: Andrew Jakubowicz)
• experimental histories and cultures of memory (convenor: Dr Katrina Schlunke)
• environment, political ecologies and spatial cultures (convenor: Heather Goodall)
• transnational studies (convenor: Devleena Ghosh)
• transforming communications (convenor: Penny O'Donnell)
• experience-based inquiry (convenor: Catherine Robinson).

Creative Practices and Cultural Economy

The Centre for Creative Practices and Cultural Economy (CPCE) provides a unique framework for the investigation of creative practice within a cultural economy context. It merges creative practice with cross-disciplinary areas such as public history, information technology, cultural analysis and economics. In doing so, the centre brings new understanding to the creative industries concept. It explores a range of perspectives on the process of creativity from inception to production, in order to determine how meaning is made in contemporary society across a range of cultural forms.

The centre's core investigations are the key issues of cultural and economic values, their nature, their purpose and, most importantly, their intersection with each other and with creative practice.

The CPCE provides fresh perspectives by understanding cultural economy as a closely interwoven fabric of cultural and economic creative practices that represent a whole systems approach in the determination of value. This entails not only the tangible qualities that emerge through process and production, but the intangible processes of individual values, sense of place, identity and passion that are captured within all creative works.

Research hubs are:

• building creative societies
• creative media
• cultural heritage and tourism
• media and communication practices
• wine and food
• writing and literary cultures.

The CPCE has a significant body of research students, which enriches the research strength's creative culture. Members supervise a range of traditional and non-traditional master's and doctoral degrees, and their areas of expertise include:

• new media
• fiction
• non-fiction
• screenwriting
• public history
• history and memory
• media arts
• multimodality
• film and video
• documentary
• sound and music.