The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences bids farewell to their Social Dynamics programme as it will not be offered to prospective students as of 2020. PHOTO: Nathan Dumlao /unsplash.com.
The BA Social Dynamics course stabled in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences will no longer be available at Stellenbosch University (SU) as of 2020.
The three-year undergraduate programme will officially stop accepting applications from 2020.
Programme coordinator and lecturer in Sociology, Mr Jacob MJ du Plessis, says that the decision to phase out the programme was made over a year ago due to waning interest each year resulting in dwindling enrolment numbers.
“The phasing out of Social Dynamics was a faculty decision based on looking at data with regards to student enrolment which declined over the years,” says du Plessis.
Du Plessis explains that the process involved in renewal and phasing out of a programme is a lengthy one that takes much deliberation, consideration and debate and is done in conjunction with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
“Programme renewal is an academic process which is a regulated process by Higher Education and SAQA, to ensure that the national academic offering remains current and relevant and to prevent duplication. This is a process that is currently run in all faculties,” explains du Plessis.
Differences in admission requirements as well as in subject selection for BA Humanities, BA Social Dynamics, as well as BA Language and Culture are subtle.
Pass rates in terms of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) admission requirements between the three disciplines do not differ at all with minor changes between the mathematics admission requirements between BA Social Dynamics and BA Humanities, and with differences in language requirements for BA Language and Culture.
“There are no differences in the subject choices between BA Humanities and BA Social Dynamics, with the exception of some Economics modules and for which only three students registered over the last five years or so,” comments du Plessis.
Comparison between BA Social Dynamics, Language and Culture, and Humanities requirements:
- BA Social Dynamics
Mathematics – code 5 (60%) (only if you will be taking Economics as subject).
OR
Mathematics – code 4 (50%) OR Mathematical Literacy – code 6 (70%) (only if you will be taking Socio-Informatics as a subject).
- BA Language and Culture
Home Language – code 4 (50%).
First Additional Language – code 4 (50%).
- BA Humanities
Mathematics – code 4 (50%) OR Mathematical Literacy – code 6 (70%) (only if you will be taking Socio-Informatics as a subject).
Du Plessis says that students would frequently float between the three disciplines. He adds that the decision to phase out the programme was “also based on an understanding that students quite often migrate from, and in-between the three broad programmes and took advantage from the open structure of the programmes to remain longer at university, while under-performing and when they should not have been. So, it made sense in terms of the streamlining of our offering.”
For more information on admission requirements, click here.
MatieMedia spoke to several graduates from the programme who were surprised to hear the plans to phase out BA Social Dynamics and shared their experiences of the course.
Others emphasised that it was very similar to the BA Humanities degree and that their decisions for choosing Social Dynamics were largely based on it having a different title to ‘BA Humanities’.
Ingrid Kluckow (22) graduated with a BA in Social Dynamics last year (2018) and is currently busy with her honours in journalism at SU.
Kluckow comments that, “It sounded lekker and more specialised. But I enjoyed it [the course] thoroughly, as it helped me shape my way of thinking to be more open-minded.”
Kluckow majored in English Studies and Sociology – all of which you can take as subjects in the BA Humanities programme.
Nikita Cola (21) also graduated with a BA in Social Dynamics last year and is busy with her honours in psychology at SU. She says if she were to do it over, she would have chosen the same route again.
Cola chose to study BA Social Dynamics because she wanted to pursue a career in psychology and she felt the programme focused more on the social sciences rather than on the art elements itself.
“It [BA Social Dynamics] helps you to narrow down your choices a little bit, so having the BA Humanities and the BA Social Dynamics, you are able to see which way you lean towards more.”
Laura Avontuur (23) graduated with a BA in Social Dynamics last year and is doing her postgraduate diploma in Theology.
Avontuur expressed her enjoyment of the course adding that she was “very sad to hear [about the phasing out]” but she “believes that if the humanities degree becomes similar [to Social Dynamics] in terms of structure, there won’t be much of a difference.”
According to du Plessis, the phasing out of the programme creates room for optimisation of the existing BA degrees.
“BA (Language and Culture) has been extensively revised in a previous round of renewal and with the phasing out of BA Social Dynamics, we will tweak BA Humanities to ensure that students from both remaining broad programmes have optimal choices to still be able to take the subjects they would like to take, and with less programmes we will perhaps have a bit more flexibility or even other options to take a subject which was not possible before,” says du Plessis.