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Bachelor of Global and International Studies

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Welcome to the Bachelor of Global and International Studies degree program!

Please read this guide prior to registering

Your Degree Program

The Bachelor of Global and International Studies (BGInS) degree is offered as an Honours degree requiring 20.0 credits and normally four years of full-time study to complete. Students already registered in the Honours degree may transfer to the 15.0 credit degree, which normally requires three years of full-time study to complete. There is no external entry to the 15.0 credit degree program.

BGInS is intended for students who want to learn more about, and engage constructively with, the world in which we live.  It is expected that it will allow students to pursue a wide range of career options related to global and international studies, including graduate school in a number of different disciplinary areas.  It is both multidisciplinary, in that it introduces students to the many different disciplinary perspectives on global and international studies, and interdisciplinary, in that it places these disciplinary perspectives in critical dialogue with each other.

There are four components to the degree: 1) a multidisciplinary core course sequence which provides all students with a common foundation in global and international studies; 2) 18 Specializations, some defined thematically and some defined in terms of geographic regions of the world, which allow students to acquire a more in-depth knowledge of a subject of particular interest to them; 3) a language requirement intended to make students capable of engaging with another culture in a second language and 4) an International Experience Requirement (IER) to ensure that all students have practical experience of engaging with the wider world.

First Year Course Selection

In the first year of the BGInS degree, students will normally take 5.0 credits of courses, including 1.5 credits GINS core courses, the 0.0 credit IER preparation course, up to 2.0 credits Specialization courses, up to 1.0 credit language courses, and the remainder elective courses.  It is strongly encouraged that BGInS students include a First Year Seminar (FYSM) among their elective choices.  Details are below:

  1. Core Courses: All first year BGInS students must take the three 0.5 credit BGInS first year core courses, as follows:

All three of these courses are offered in both the Fall and Winter term. Students are strongly discouraged from taking all three courses in the same term, i.e. students should aim to take two of these courses in one term, and the third course in the other term.

Additional First Year Requirements

Foundation Courses in the 18 BGInS Specializations

Depending on their Specialization, students must take 0.5 to 2.0 credits of foundation courses. Below is a listing of the mandatory foundation courses by Specialization.

More Information

Full information on BGInS, including contact details, can be found on the BGInS website. That website includes a page with more detailed information about first year course selection in BGInS.

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