Undergraduate Programs
Bachelor of Professional Arts
Human Services Major
     
Regulations effective September 1, 2005
   
     

The Bachelor of Professional Arts (Human Services) is offered by Athabasca University's Centre for Work and Community Studies.

The program responds to career and professional needs of career practitioners in the human services fields of early childhood education, child and youth care, rehabilitation services, and other closely related fields such as teacher assistants and counsellors. The program complements the diploma programs offered at community colleges in Alberta and across Canada. For more information about the program, please see the Human Services homepage.

Students are strongly encouraged to plan an individualized program of study to

• consolidate and formalize their previous learning
• build on their existing knowledge
• broaden their knowledge base
• explore areas of interest, and
• prepare themselves for future education and career choices.
You are advised to plan your program of study carefully to ensure that you meet all of the degree requirements. A maximum of 12 credits may be completed at the 200 level including any 200-level courses in the required common core. You must also complete a minimum of 18 credits at the 400 level. If you need assistance, or for general information regarding the Human Services major, please contact the program advisor.

A maximum of 60 credits may be awarded towards the admission requirements for this program through portfolio assessment by the Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) office, or a maximum of 30 credits may be awarded towards the remaining credits in the program.

Athabasca University has developed program learning outcomes that describe the career options that may be available to you upon graduating.

Classroom Setting

In addition to completing this degree through online and distance learning, you have the option to take courses for the Bachelor of Professional Arts (Human Services) in a classroom setting at Lethbridge Community College (Lethbridge, Alberta). See Section 9.3 for more information.

To Bachelor of Professional Arts program.

Sixty credits are required for degree completion beyond the approved two-year college diploma. Students must complete the following degree requirements within the Bachelor of Professional Arts program.

     
     
  Human Services Major Requirements  
  Common core 12
  Major courses 36
  Elective courses 12
     
     
 

Required Major Courses (36 credits)

Student must complete six required courses and six additional courses; two chosen from each of the following three themes: Leadership, Public Policy Contexts, and A Changing Environment.

     
     
  Required Courses (6 credits)  
     
HSRV 311 Practice and Policy in the Human Services (3)
HSRV 322 Policies in the Human Services (3)

 

   
     
  Elective Major Courses
(select 12 credits from the following)
     
HADM 315 Health and Community Development
(3)
HADM 369 Health Policy (3)
HRMT/ORGB 386 Introduction to Human Resource Management (3)
HSRV 433 Directed Reading I: Topics in the Human Services (3)
HSRV 455 Project Design I (3)
HSRV 477 Project Implementation I (3)
LBST 200 Introduction to Labour Studies (3)
ORGB 300 Organizational Culture (3)
ORGB 327 Leadership in Organizations (3)
ORGB 364 Organizational Behaviour (3)
PSYC 388 Introduction to Counselling (3)
PSYC 389 An Introduction to Learning Disabilities (3)
PSYC 405 Creating a Working Alliance (3)
SOCI 300 Organizations and Society: Making Sense of Modern Organizational Life (3)
WMST 266 Thinking From Women's Lives: An Introduction to Women's Studies (3)
WMST 321 Advocacy from the Margins (3)
     
     
 

Additional 18 Credits. Select six credits from
each theme.

The six theme-related courses create a strong multidisciplinary knowledge base in the areas of leadership, policy contexts and the rapidly changing world in which high-quality human service delivery occurs. The major courses offer a mix of traditional management and public administration along with innovative approaches that provide other possibilities for responding to rapid social change.

Students may select courses that will broaden and deepen their understanding or specialize, for example, by choosing aboriginal content or women's studies courses. With permission of the program coordinator other courses may be substituted under the theme headings to complement students individualized program of study.

Eighteen credits must be completed at the 400 level. Students are advised to plan their program of study carefully to ensure that they meet all of the degree requirements.


Theme One: Leadership (select six credits from the following)

These courses emphasize communications, management, finance and social change.

     
ACCT 250 Accounting for Managers
or
any 200-level accounting course
(3)
CMNS 321 Computers and Human Experience (3)
CMNS 385 Media Construction of Social Movements and Issues (3)
COMM 243 Interpersonal Communications in Management (3)
COMM 377 Communication and Problem Solving in Groups (3)
ECON 321 Economics of Health Care (3)
GOVN 450 Public Budgeting and Financial Management (3)
HLST 320 Teaching and Learning for Health Professionals (3)
HRMT/ORGB 386 Introduction to Human Resource Management (3)
INST 357 Contemporary Aboriginal Issues in Canada (3)
LBST 332 Women and Unions (3)
ORGB 326 Organization Theory (3)
ORGB 364 Organizational Behaviour (3)
ORGB 390 Managing Change (3)
PSYC 470 Consultation and Collaboration for Students with Special Needs (3)
PSYC 471 Managing Behaviour Problems in the Classroom (3)
SOCI 300 Organizations and Society: Making Sense of Modern Organizational Life (3)
WMST 302 Communication Skills: Feminist Practice (3)
WMST 422 Women, Violence, and Social Change (3)
     
     
 

Theme Two: Public Policy Contexts (select six credits)

These courses emphasize government, law, society and healthy communities.

     
GOVN 390 Public Policy and Administrative Governance (3)
HADM 315 Health and Community Development (3)
HADM 326 Health Issues: Health and Healing (3)
HADM 336 Community Health Planning (3)
HADM 369 Health Policy in Canada (3)
INST 426 Aboriginal Government and Law (3)
LBST 413 What do Unions Do? (3)
LGST 310 The Impact of the Canadian Charter on Labour Relations (3)
LGST 331 Administrative Law (3)
LGST 430 Canadian Legal System (3)
POLI 309 Canadian Government and Politics (3)
POLI 311 Aboriginal Politics and Governments (3)
POLI 330 International and Global Politics (3)
POLI 350 Women in Canadian Politics (3)
POLI 383 Introduction to Canadian Political Economy (3)
SOCI 329 Aging and You (I): An Introduction to Gerontology (3)
WMST 400 Feminism in the Western Tradition (3)
WMST 401 Contemporary Feminist Theory (3)
     
     
 

Theme Three: A Changing Environment (select six credits)

These courses emphasize holistic approaches to communities, roots and sources, and methodology and research.

     
CMNS 420 Children and Media (3)
CRJS 352 Victims of Crime (3)
EDUC 301 Educational Issues and Social Change I: Historical Social Perspectives (3)
HADM 369 Health Policy in Canada (3)
INST 342 Issues in Native Education (3)
INST 358 Aboriginal Women in Canadian Contemporary Society (3)
INST 369 History of Canada's First Nations from 1830 (3)
INST 370 The Métis (3)
LBST 331 Women, Workers, and Farmers: Histories of North American Popular Resistance (3)
POEC 393 Canada and the Global Economy (3)
PSYC 343 Issues and Strategies in Counselling Women (6)
PSYC 389 An Introduction to Learning Disabilities (3)
PSYC 400 Teaching and Managing the Child with Learning Difficulties (6)
SOCI 380 Canadian Ethnic Studies (3)
SOCI 435 Theories of Social Change (3)
SOCI 450 Social Theory and the Environment (3)
SOSC 366 Research Methods in the Social Sciences (3)
WMST 303 Issues in Women's Health (3)
WMST 444 Feminist Research Methodology (3)
     
     
 

Options (12 credits)

Select 12 additional credits in any discipline at the senior (300 or 400) level. Students should select electives with a view to fulfilling the general degree requirement especially the requirement of completing six, three-credit courses at the 400 level. Students may select additional courses from those recommended for the Human Services major.

     


Site Map
Index
About Athabasca
   University
Courses
Programs
Admissions and
   Academic Regulations

Fees, Financial
   Assistance
Examinations and Grades
Student Services
Student Code of
   Conduct and Right
   to Appeal Regulations

Collaborative
   Partnerships
Academic Awards
Faculty
Glossary

Registration Services
Important Dates
Contact AU



 

top


 • Information effective Sept. 1, 2005 to Aug. 31, 2006.
 • Links: Web Unit, Privacy & Conditions. © Athabasca University.
Archived regulations


next page...
go to Calendar Homepage go to University Homepage