Augustana Advantage

These new majors will give you the ability to customize your degree, explore your interests and learn the skills needed to excel in the workplace or get into graduate school or a professional program. The new majors are multidisciplinary and provide unique groups of courses for students.

These new majors prepare you for a variety of career paths. Because they are multidisciplinary in nature, they prepare students to enter graduate studies, to work in various interdisciplinary fields of study across the humanities and social sciences, as well as to get into professional schools like law, medicine and business. Some of the specific fields each of these majors could prepare you for include:

Creativity and Culture
art and design, communications, library and information science, journalism, marketing, publishing, education

Law, Crime and Justice Studies
working with prison populations, probation officers, entering the police force or RCMP, social work, government work, non-profit organizations, law school, other pre-professional studies

Ethics and Global Studies
non-governmental organizations, non-profits, municipal, provincial and federal government offices, policy development, intelligence, foreign service, diplomacy, community development, social work, international policy, civil service

In March, students will be able to see the requirements laid out in the University of Alberta's 2020/21 academic calendar online. If you are a current student, information on requirements for new majors can also be found during appointments and conversations with your Student Advisors. They can assist you in reviewing a "what if" advisement report to show what the new majors could look like with the courses you have already taken.

Current year-one students, or those who will complete 45 or fewer credits after Winter 2020, can move into a new major for Fall 2020. If you'd like to make this move, please speak to your Student Advisors during course selection time (March 2020).

Yes, current students can continue to switch to current Augustana majors. However, you can no longer switch into majors that have been suspended for admission. The following majors have been suspended: art, drama, economics, English, global and development studies, history, modern languages, music, philosophy and religion and political science.

Students who are currently enrolled in one of the majors that have been suspended for admission can choose to continue on with that major or can explore a different major.

At Augustana, we're always thinking about better ways to teach and learn, instead of simply relying on the traditional ways of doing things. We've introduced three new majors and a new project-based core to begin in the Fall of 2020 in order to expand on the unique and innovative learning experience that we've already started with 3-11.

The project-based core focuses on the four C's: communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. These 21st-century skills are those most often identified as desirable among employers, ensuring success in any future career path.

The new project-based core includes four sequential, group-based courses that build these skills in tangible ways and give you the opportunity to practice what you've learned in real-world settings.

Yes! We know that being able to work in a group is one of the most in-demand skills that employers tell us they want from university graduates. With that said, we will give you the opportunity to hone those skills and practice working in interdisciplinary teams in a safe environment where your professors and peers can provide you feedback.

Learning how to work effectively as a part of a team is one of the objectives of these courses. We want you to be able to answer inevitable job interview questions about examples of working collaboratively with others using examples from your project-based core experiences.

Typically, AUIDS 101 will be offered in the first 3-week block on campus. AUIDS 201 will be offered in the Fall 11-week and the 6 credit courses (AUIDS 301 and 401) will likely be offered in a 3-week and 11-week course in both the Fall and Winter semesters (students will choose Fall or Winter depending on the rest of their academic schedule).

More information about the new courses

No, it is not mandatory to take the new core, but it is mandatory to be enrolled in a core. Most universities have general core requirements for all students to finish before they graduate.

All students currently attending Augustana are required to complete the current core. However, if you are a current student and have less than 45 credits at the end of Winter 2020, you can choose to switch to the new project-based core. All students starting in the Fall of 2020 will be taking the new, project-based core.

If you are a current year-one student or will have 45 credits or less at the end of Winter 2020, you can decide to move into the new core for Fall 2020. Please discuss this with your Student Advisors.

If you are a current year-one student, or will have 45 credits or less by the end of Winter 2020 and were on track to complete your degree in four years (30 credits in each year), making this switch will not extend your program. If you have completed more than 45 credits and decide to switch over, it may increase your time to graduation. A Student Advisor can assist you by looking at your individual situation to find out what the impact on you would be.

If you are a current student and choose to switch into the new core, you are unable to move back to the old core.