Building a strong future for our Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Most disciplines will remain in their original school, however there will be shifts for some disciplines.

A full breakdown is detailed below:

• School of Art, Communication and English
  • Sydney College of the Arts
  • Art History (inc. Museum and Heritage Studies)
  • Film Studies
  • English (inc. Writing Studies)
  • Media and Communications (inc. Digital Cultures)
  • Theatre and Performance Studies
• School of Humanities
  • Archaeology
  • Classics and Ancient History
  • History
  • Linguistics
  • Philosophy
  • Studies in Religion
  • Gender and Cultural Studies
• School of Social and Political Sciences (SSPS)
  • Anthropology
  • Government and International Relations
  • Political Economy
  • Sociology and Criminology (inc. Peace and Conflict Studies)
• Sydney School of Education and Social Work (SSESW)
  • Initial Teacher Education
  • Social Work & Policy Studies
  • Indigenous Studies and Aboriginal Education
  • Education Studies
• School of Languages and Cultures (SLC)
  • Arabic Languages and Cultures
  • Asian Studies (inc. Indian Subcontinental Studies)
  • Chinese Studies
  • European Studies
  • French and Francophone Studies
  • Germanic Studies
  • Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies
  • Indonesian Studies
  • Comparative Literature and Translation Studies
  • Italian Studies
  • Japanese Studies
  • Korean Studies
  • Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies
  • Spanish and Latin American Studies
• School of Economics (SoE)
  • Economics

Students will be provided with a simplified degree pathway and stronger learning experience. As a result of establishing first- and upper-year core shared units of study across FASS majors for the first time in the Faculty, we will have a clear and consistent model for a major and our shared units will provide the opportunity to deliver cohort-building (a sense of identity and community) for all students in each major.

These changes will allow us to more easily adapt in the future, so that we can embrace new opportunities and ideas while maintaining our high education and research standards. The Future FASS changes provide an opportunity to improve interdisciplinarity, strategic research and education initiatives and the student experience. It is anticipated this will provide support for established and emerging research concentrations and disciplinary strengths. 

The clearest structural changes to the curriculum for prospective students will come in the form of further majors in the Faculty adopting core units of study at first and upper years. This reform will make it easier to ensure that all students graduate having achieved requisite graduate qualities in each major. It will also open opportunities for academic staff to build a stronger sense of academic community within our majors.

None. All existing courses will continue to be offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The Faculty is committed to maintaining all of its nearly 50 existing disciplines and will remain one of the most comprehensive Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences in the country.

There is an estimated reduction of approximately one dozen units as a result of curriculum changes. This is across a faculty that delivers over 1,800 units of study per year and therefore represents no more change than might be seen through an annual fluctuation in offerings outside any curriculum project. We will continue to offer a very comprehensive and diverse curriculum by Australian and International standards.

There is an estimated reduction of approximately one dozen units on offer from 2022 (when compared to 2021) as a result of curriculum changes. This is across a faculty that delivers over 1,800 units of study per year and therefore represents no more change than might be seen through an annual fluctuation in offerings outside any curriculum project. While the number of majors or minors on offer in FASS is affected by these changes, we will continue to offer a very comprehensive and diverse curriculum by Australian and international standards.

No. All six schools will remain, and the Sydney College of the Arts will also maintain its distinct status within the School of Art, Communication and English. Two school names will change in order to best reflect the disciplines of those schools.

The current School of Literature, Arts and Media (SLAM) will become a new School of Art, Communication and English, committed to culture-making and engagement with creative practice across a range of forms, making our expertise in communication and digital cultures, creative writing, curatorial studies, film and moving image, museum studies, theatre and performance studies and visual arts newly visible to prospective students and collaborators. The consolidation of existing infrastructure such as media laboratories, galleries, theatres, and maker spaces aligns well with the University’s vision for enhancing the cultural life on campus and its activation of the Science Road precinct as a cultural hub.

The School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI) will become the School of Humanities. The disciplines of Linguistics and Studies in Religion will be moved to this School.

Gender and Cultural Studies will remain in the newly named School of Humanities, it will not be moved to another school.

Throughout the consultation process, staff emphasised that the administrative and financial silos of departments prevented them from delivering inter-departmental courses and units of study and stifled opportunities for academic innovation.

The move to a disciplinary structure is designed to foster greater academic collaboration in teaching and research, ensure consistent high-quality disciplinary training for FASS students, reduce administrative double-up and contribute to securing the future of our smaller disciplines.

Many arts and social sciences faculties at other outstanding Australian universities operate successfully with this proposed structure. FASS is the only faculty in the University still with departments, following changes across recent years.

The Final Change Plan (FCP) sees the Faculty move from a departmental structure to a disciplinary structure and is designed to enhance academic collaboration in teaching and research, and ensure consistent, high-quality disciplinary training for FASS students. The changes will support an improved student experience through building strong student cohorts and disciplinary identities.

The disciplinary approach aims to break down the silo effect of departments and, where they do not already exist, schools will establish school-based research themes with a focus on large-scale and dynamic programs of research. Discipline-level seminars will continue to thrive while the new disciplinary structure will also enable exciting and expanded possibilities for research inquiry.

None. There are no redundancies or reductions in full-time equivalent (FTE). In preliminary consultation, staff expressed a strong preference to minimise job losses wherever possible and so the changes focus on other options, including some small changes to our curriculum offerings.

The new structure has been created to improve interdisciplinary research and teaching. It will reduce administrative loads, especially for smaller disciplines. Every discipline or discipline-cluster will have a Chair, and undergraduate and postgraduate coursework departmental coordinators will be replaced with coordinators of individual majors, streams and degrees.

Although your course may change schools, it will still be located in the broader FASS community and taught by FASS academic staff, so your education experience will remain unchanged. We will continue to provide support and information through various channels. 

2022 will be a transition year, designed to give staff and students an opportunity to review and refine the changes. We anticipate it may take some time for individual areas and faculty staff to settle in. To ensure minimal impact of changes on students during this period, we are committed to fully supporting all staff and students during the transition period through regular communication and engagements.

We understand that students need to stay informed about the Faculty changes and we are committed to building strong partnerships with our current and prospective students. We will ensure that you are kept up-to-date and included through dedicated Faculty communications and forums. The Student Canvas page will be regularly updated with new information regarding Future FASS throughout the process.

 Please email fass.studentforum@sydney.edu.au if you have any Future FASS related questions.