Bachelor of Arts Honours
Human and Social Studies - General Social Science
Purpose and Rationale
Qualification Overview:
Purpose:
The qualification aims to equip learners with comprehensive knowledge, specialized skills, and practical competence across various disciplines, including Communication Studies and Language, Human and Social Studies, Culture and Arts, Business, Commerce, and Management Studies, Education, Training and Development, and Health Sciences and Social Services. This will empower learners to engage in continuous intellectual growth, pursue economically viable opportunities, and make meaningful contributions to society. The qualification is designed to enable learners to deliver holistic, integrated, and interdisciplinary services, promoting diversity, accessibility, and equitable resource distribution for all South Africans. Emphasizing lifelong learning, learners will demonstrate proficiency in their field of study, paving the way for personal development, economic productivity, and positive societal impact.
Rationale:
By producing a significant number of graduates in social sciences, this qualification seeks to broaden South Africa's pool of local leaders engaged in innovative, knowledge-driven economic and academic endeavors. Graduates will emerge as social analysts, researchers, facilitators, developers, managers, and service providers, serving as experts in the Humanities field. Through a deepening understanding of social science methodologies and advancements, learners will be well-prepared for specialized postgraduate studies. Ultimately, the qualification acts as a stepping stone for learners to pursue a Master's qualification in their chosen specialist area within the Faculty of Arts. Its overarching goal aligns with the broader purpose of qualifying learners for advanced academic pursuits and professional roles within the Humanities discipline.
Outcomes
- Demonstrate the ability to achieve major skills.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the embedded knowledge that underpins the result/outcome.
- Demonstrate the ability to integrate or connect performances and to reflect on, evaluate and adopt the above competencies.
- Construct the discursive foundations of an independent perspective on the discourse, artefacts, actions and institutions in a special field of learning.
- Apply this frame of knowledge in exploring and gaining critical insight into cultural and social issues.
- Contribute to the understanding and solution of cultural and social systems and problems.
- Demonstrate rudimentary research capabilities.
- Develop report-writing capabilities.
- Critically read texts on specialised topics.
- Survey critical debates in the literature, evaluate current theoretical frames and confront dominant ideologies in selected fields of learning.
- Explore sub-disciplines, special areas and unique cases in a field of learning### verbalise the disciplinary discourses.
- Master specialised research procedure for accessing relevant information, analysing data, and interpreting cases and contextualising problems.
Assessment Criteria
Integrated Assessment
Competence is achieved through continuous assessment by demonstrating the ability to achieve the outcomes of the qualification through the following methods:
- Module course mark
- Assignments
- Projects
- Examinations
This will be supported by a module credit system, followed by a final exam on the modules for which credit was not obtained.
Assessments are as follows:
- Confirmation of the Embedded Knowledge component to ensure that the Foundational Competency is achieved.
- Verified by Internal Verifiers to ensure valid, credible, true, and fair results.
- Four to five three-hour written examinations papers.
- Three to four three-hour written examination papers and a minor research project or a minor dissertation.
- Certain disciplines have the option of an oral examination in one of the examination papers.
Qualification Details
- Type
- Honours Degree
- NQF Level
- 08
- Min. Credits
- 120
- SAQA Source
- More Information
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This page includes information from the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) . Builtneat Pty Ltd trading as Study Start, has modified all or some of this information. SAQA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.