TO:

Executive Officer,
Education Committee

FROM:

Faculty of Information Technology and Faculty of Arts

DATE:

June 19, 2001

RE:

Request for approval - Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Computer Science

The Board of the Faculty of Information Technology and the Board of the Faculty of Arts at their respective meetings of March 3, 1999 and February 16, 1999 have endorsed for transmission to the Education Committee, and subsequently to the Academic Board, the proposal to establish the Double Degree in Arts-Computer Science.

The Faculties propose to offer this course beginning in Semester II, 1999, as an on-campus course offered on the Clayton campus.

The signatures following are confirmation that all procedures have been complied with in this matter, and that the course complies with University policy statements, including the Education Policy.

I certify:

 

Dean (or Dean's Nominee) (Managing Faculty)

Signature, Name and Date

I certify that:

 
Associate Dean (Teaching) (Managing Faculty) Signature, Name and Date

This course proposal has implications for the Faculty of Information Technology and the Faculty of Arts. I certify that consultation has occurred with respect to those implications and that agreement has been reached between the relevant academic units.

 
Associate Dean (Teaching) (Associated Faculty) Signature, Name and Date

 

 

COURSE NAME

Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Computer Science

FORMAL ABBREVIATION

BA/BCompSc

REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION OF COURSE

Owing to the move from 4 point subjects to 6 point subjects, and the more stringent regulations regarding the number of points that are necessary to obtain a three-year degree, students who are interested in both Arts and Computing find that they must largely give up one of those interests when pursuing a three-year degree. A four-year double degree would allow students to maintain both interests. Further, it would provide an opening for exciting degree combinations such as cognitive science (combining psychology, linguistics, philosophy and artificial intelligence studies), and visual culture/computational visualization (combining art history and theory, film and television studies or geographical information systems with computer graphics and multimedia programming).

This course will increase the flexibility and range of choices available to students, and enable students to graduate with a more rounded education. In addition, it will satisfy market needs which emerged recently due to the pervasiveness of computers in general and the World Wide Web (WWW) in particular. For example, a course that combines visual culture with computer graphics and expertise on the WWW will allow the graduate to participate in the burgeoning animation industry. Combinations of linguistics and artificial intelligence will produce graduates capable of participating in computerized dictionaries and automatic machine translation efforts, which are increasingly important in the current multi-national climate.

PROPOSED DATE OF INTRODUCTION

Semester II, 1999

LOCATION & MODE OF ENROLMENT

Clayton campus (on campus).

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Applicants will be required to have successfully completed the Victorian Certificate of Education (or equivalent) with a minimum of a grade of C in English (units 3 and 4), an average grade of D in Mathematical Methods (units 3 and 4) and in at least three other studies.

CREDIT PROVISION

The maximum credit a student can receive towards a Monash degree is two-thirds of the total points; credit transfer and admission with advanced standing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

LENGTH OF COURSE

Four years full-time with a maximum completion time of 10 years.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The double degree gives recognition to the needs of students who want to complete both a Computer Science and an Arts degree. Graduates will have the combined talents of a computer technologist as well as having highly developed verbal, communication and visual skills. Thus, this degree will give graduates an edge in a wide range of employment opportunities related to both information technology and arts.

Specific objectives of the course:

Upon completion of the Arts component, students are expected to have:

  1. Disciplinary knowledge and understanding.
  2. The ability to apply these disciplinary understandings to contemporary social, cultural, political and environmental issues.
  3. Skills to engage as active participants in critical reflection and debate.
  4. The intellectual capabilities inherent in reading and interpretation, written argument, quantitative analysis, qualitative critique, and creative thinking required for scholarship and practice of arts/humanities disciplines.

Upon completion of the Computer Science component, students are expected to have:

  1. Knowledge of:
    • different programming language paradigms and their limitations.
    • the breadth of Computer Science applications.
    • the development process for large pieces of software.
    • software design strategies such as top-down and object-oriented.
    • problem solving strategies and common techniques for algorithm design.
    • the formal theoretical basis of Computer Science.
    • algorithms and data structures used in common application areas.
    • the cultural, social, legal and ethical issues inherent in the discipline of computing.

  2. Understanding of:
    • limitations of algorithmic solutions for undecidable and intractable problems.
    • the underpinning of information technology by Computer Science.
    • how high level applications can be understood and are implemented in various levels of abstraction ranging from a high-level programming language, through assembly language to the underlying hardware.
    • the various components in the hardware of a typical computer and their roles.
    • the various components in the software of a typical computer system and their roles.
    • the importance of user-interface design issues.
    • several important application areas of Computer Science such as databases, artificial intelligence and graphics.

  3. Ability to:
    • design well-structured programs.
    • write, test and debug substantial pieces of software.
    • write technical and user documentation.
    • find or develop an efficient algorithmic solution to a problem.
    • reason theoretically about and empirically evaluate the complexity of a program or algorithm.
    • participate in large-scale programming projects.
    • communicate effectively in a professional environment.
    • review and evaluate computing systems.

  4. Attitudes which enable them to:

STRUCTURE/COURSE OUTLINE

The Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Computer Science degree is organized in a flexible way to cater for students with a variety of degree objectives.

Arts
The Arts degree is divided into a major sequence, a minor sequence a first-year sequence and an additional 12 points.

In some circumstances, and with the approval of the Faculty of Arts, students who have completed the two first-year sequences for their major and minor may opt to complete a second major (48 points in another discipline). This major would replace the minor sequence, the first-year sequence and the additional 12 points of Arts subjects.

Computer Science
The Computer Science degree is divided into core subjects and electives.

To obtain the double Arts/Computer Science degree, students must complete a total of 204 points, accrued as follows:

The Arts/CS double degree has a load of 48 points in first year and in one of the second, third and fourth years, and a load of 54 points in the remaining two higher years.

Table 1 is a sample ordering of subjects. Other orders may be desirable depending on subjects taken.

Year 1 CSE1301  
Computer Programming		 MAT1841 
Mathematics for 
Computer Science I 
(Note 1)		  
Level 1 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1) 		  
Level 1 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A2) 		  
CSE1303 
Computer Science		 MAT1830 
Mathematics for 
Computer Science II 
(Note 1)		  
Level 1 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1) 		  
Level 1 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A2) 
Year 2 CSE2304 
Algorithms and  
Data Structures		 CSE2303  
Formal Methods I		  
Level 2 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1)  		  Level 1 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A3) 
(Note 5)
CSE2305 
Object-oriented  
Software Engineering		 CSE2302 
Operating Systems 		 
Level 2 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1)  		  Level 1 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A3) 
(Note 5)
Year 3
CSE3305 
Formal Methods II 
and/or 
CSE3322 
Programming Languages
and Implementation
and/or 
CSE3323   
Computer Industry Issues  
(Note 2) 
CSE Elective  
(Note 4) 		 Level 2 or Level 3 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1) 		 Level 2 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A2 or A3) 
(Notes 5 and 6)  		CSE Elective 
(Notes 4) 
CSE Elective  
(Note 4) 		 Level 3 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1) 
(Note 7) 		 Level 2 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A2 or A3) 
(Notes 5 and 6)  		 
Year 4 CSE3308  
Software Engineering: 
Analysis and Design 
(Note 2) 		 CSE Elective 
(Note 4) 		 Level 3 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1) 
(Note 7) 		 Additional Arts subject 
(Note 5) 		 CSE Elective 
(Note 4) 
CSE3302 
Software Engineering Project 
(Notes 2 and 3) 		 CSE Elective 
(Note 4) 		 Level 3 
Arts subject 
(Discipline A1) 
(Note 7) 		 Additional Arts subject 
(Note 5) 		  
Table 1: Sample Course Structure (core subjects in bold)

Notes for Table 1:

  1. Other approved Mathematics subjects may be substituted.
  2. The Level 3 Computer Science core consists of CSE3308 and a 6 point programming project such as CSE3302, and two of CSE3305, CSE3322 and CSE3323, which may be taken during the third or the fourth year.
  3. The Software Engineering Project (CSE3302) may be substituted with the Project (CSE3301).
  4. The Computer Science electives (36 points) comprise at least 12 points of Level 3 subjects and at most 12 points of Level 1 subjects. These subjects may be taken during the second, third or fourth years of study, and include but are not restricted to the following subjects: CSE3304 (Computer organization), CSE3306 (Microprocessors), CSE2309/3309 (Artificial intelligence), CSE3313 (Computer graphics), CSE3314 (Image processing), CSE2316/3316 (Database management systems), CSE2318/3318 (Data communications and computer networks), CSE3320 (Machine learning), CSE2324/3324 (Computer architecture), CSE2325/3325 (Multimedia programming and the World Wide Web), CSE2391/3391 (Unix tools), CSE2392/3392 (Cobol programming), CSE2393/3393 (Prolog programming), CSE2394/3394 (Lisp programming), CSE2395/3395 (Perl programming).
  5. The additional first-year sequence, the Level 2 subjects and the additional Arts subjects may be taken in any order over the second, third and fourth years of study, provided the prerequisites of the subjects are satisfied.
    6. In some circumstances, and with the approval of the Faculty of Arts, students may replace the additional first-year sequence and the additional 12 points of Arts subjects with appropriate Level 2 and Level 3 Arts subjects leading to a second Arts major (48 points in discipline A2).
  6. Students who have taken Level 1 sequences in Arts disciplines A2 and A3 should continue with one of these two disciplines at Level 2 over their third and fourth years of study to complete a minor sequence in Arts.
  7. The Level 3 subjects in the major Arts discipline (A1) may be taken over the third and fourth years of study.

INTER-FACULTY INVOLVEMENT

The course involves studies in the Faculty of Information Technology and the Faculty of Arts, and 12 points of Mathematics subjects taken in the Faculty of Science.

RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS

On-campus requirements: all the requirements for the delivery of this subject are available, as it involves equipment, lecture theaters, tutorial rooms and laboratories, and computing and other support facilities which are already in place for existing subjects. The proposed degree takes EFTSUs from existing courses, so no additional load will be placed on these facilities.

FEE STRUCTURE

The course is HECS liable. International student fee: annual fee of $14,280 based on a normal enrolment of 48 credit points. Australian fee paying students: annual fee of $13,300 based on a normal enrolment of 48 credit points. For the years where the course requires a different number of credit points, the fees will be proportionately pro-rated.

ANTICIPATED ENROLMENT

The expected annual intake will begin with 10 students in Semester II, 1999, and comprises 20 students in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. The course will be accommodated within the existing faculty load, as no additional resources are required.

LEGISLATION/STATUTES AFFECTED

Both degrees are already listed in statute 6.1.2. Hence, no changes are required to this statute or to the regulations of the Faculty of Information Technology or the Faculty of Arts.

LIBRARY APPROVAL

The Library Impact Statement has been approved. There is no impact, since no new subjects are being proposed.

HANDBOOK ENTRY


This page was last updated by Ingrid Zukerman on June 19, 2001.