Bachelor of Asian Studies

Engaging with Asia as a part of Asia is a strategic imperative for Australia. The Bachelor of Asian Studies provides a pathway for ambitious and adventurous people in all fields of study to gain the language skills and cultural-historical expertise critical to leading that engagement. Graduates emerge with a nuanced understanding of the Asian region and its complex national and subnational parts.

Watch our video to find out how the Bachelor of Asian Studies can help you make a difference where it matters in Asia and beyond.

The Bachelor of Asian Studies provides a firm footing in how to study and engage with Asia with both language and discipline/area studies to create a unique and world class experience.

The College of Asia and the Pacific's (CAP's) breadth of Asia and Pacific language offerings is unmatched anywhere in Australia is globally recognised. All students in the Bachelor of Asian Studies must complete at least four course/a minor in an Asian language, and we encourage students who begin the study of an Asian language at university to complete a full language major in order to graduate with the proficiency required to function as an Asia specialist in the competitive job market. Placement testing allows students with existing expertise in a language to enter at their current proficiency level and develop their language skills from that point.

CAP offers a world-leading concentration of disciplinary expertise in regionally-focused and globally-aware Security Studies, Linguistics, Politics, Anthropology, and History. Our focused discipline and area studies majors communicate this expertise to students. You can focus your studies in disciplines or choose instead to study a particular geographic region within Asia and bring a range of disciplinary perspectives to bear on exploring and understanding that area.

Our majors incorporate experiential and independent research courses that equip graduates with critical thinking skills that are contextualised with regional understandings and the capacity to communicate that across cultures. A sequence of transdisciplinary problem solving courses grants students the opportunity to develop and articulate creative solutions to emerging global and regional challenges.

Graduates from the Bachelor of Asian Studies at ANU will define Australia’s productive and peaceful engagement with the region through the 21st century.

Program Requirements

The Bachelor of Asian Studies requires completion of 144 units, of which:

A maximum of 60 units may come from completion of 1000-level courses

A minimum of 18 units must come from completion of 3000-level courses

A minimum of 24 units must come from completion of Asian Language courses

A minimum of 12 units of courses tagged as Transdisciplinary Problem-Solving

96 units as follows:

12 units from completion of the following compulsory courses:

Employment Opportunities

Bachelor of Asian Studies graduates develop language skills and disciplinary sophistication within a nuanced understanding of the Asian region and its complex national and subnational parts.

Employer recruitment priorities show that Bachelor of Asian Studies graduates’ critical intercultural skills provide a competitive edge in career fields including international relations or trade, aid and development, government and policy, banking and finance, tourism, media, education, information technology, marketing, journalism, and corporate communications.