Multidisciplinary Programs

What Will You take in a Multidisciplinary Degree?

Among other courses, including a wide variety of option courses, you will take:

• General Studies 201: First Year Seminar, a small seminar on an exciting research topic

• General Studies 300: an interdisciplinary course on the roots of Western Thought

• One half-course in literature

• Courses that emphasize cultures through out the world

• Any minor field listed in the University of Calgary calendar

See the University of Calgary calendar for details of the degree structure.

What's a Minor Field?

Like a major, a minor is a coherent package of courses in a specific area. While some minors are highly structured, others are more flexible than majors and involve fewer courses (usually ten half-courses). A minor can be completed in any of the major programs as well as the offered minor programs.

Weekend University

The Multidisciplinary Degrees (with a limited variety of minors) are offered through Weekend University, an innovative program that allows mature working students to complete a degree entirely on weekends. The Multidisciplinary Degrees are particularly appropriate for mature students who want to come back to university and experience the maximum possible breadth of learning. For more details visit the Weekend University website.

What Can You Do With A Multidisciplinary Degree?

1. What do employers what?

Most employers tell us that they can train on the job for specific skill sets. Unless a job is particularly specialized, they are looking for people with what are becoming known as "soft" skills:

• broad general knowledge of people, places, cultures

• knowledge of world events

• good writing and speaking skills

• interpersonal communication skills

• reasoning and critical thinking

• ability to find, evaluate and use information

2. How will your Multidisciplinary Degree help you attain these skills?

Often students find it hard to articulate what they have learned from their degree, especially when talking to prospective employers. The following are suggestions for "proof points": that is, specific requirements that you can use to prove that you have the skills listed above.

• GNST 300: major ideas and assumptions of politics, philosophy, religion, art, and science.
• World Area/Intercultural Requirement: familiarity with different cultures and different modes of thinking; flexibility; tolerance of diversity
• COMS 361/363/365: writing and speaking skills
• Any courses involving group projects: interpersonal communication, project management
• Any courses requiring research projects: ability to find, evaluate and use information
• Your minor: since every minor is different, you will have to inventory your minor yourself

3. What do graduates think they have gained from a degree in Communication and Culture?

The 2004 Alberta Learning Graduate Employment Survey 2004 shows the following percentages of graduates who answered "somewhat" or "to a great extent" to the question "How useful was your education in helping you learn to..." This chart suggests that Communication and Culture students rate themselves higher, sometimes much higher, than other students do in terms of soft skills.

4. What sorts of jobs have people found with a Multidisciplinary Degree?

Multidisciplinary Degree alumni have held jobs such as the following. Note: These alumni may have completed training and/or gained additional experience beyond their degree in Communication and Culture.

5. What can you do to increase your future employability?

• Volunteer, both on campus and off. Any volunteer placement in the community, whether obviously related to a career or not, increases your opportunity to find out more about the community, to network with others, and to build experience.

• Look for courses that involve some form of Community Service Learning. GNST407 is a Community Serivce Learning course available to students in any program.

• Become a Peer Mentor by taking GNST501.35.

• Take additional courses through Continuing Education emphasizing workplace transition skills: human resources management, organizational behaviour, computer applications, etc. Many such courses can be found in the Management Certificate program.

• Combine travel and study through a Term Abroad or Credit Travel Study program.

• Extend your education by taking a more focused certificate or diploma at Mount Royal College, SAIT, or another institution.

See the Student Experience section of this website for more information.

There are three core career strategies:

• Cast your net wide: the advantage of a Multidisciplinary Degree is that you can do almost anything.

• Be prepared to explain how you have developed the skills noted above.

• Be proud of being a generalist rather than, or as well as, a specialist.
  

Contacts:

Communication and Culture
Career Services
Volunteer Calgary
Continuing Education
Centre for International Students and Study Abroad