General Skills Courses

General skills courses

Course codeCourse TitleDescription
UCACCACA11Research in ContextResearch in Context is a first-semester course that introduces students to research and writing in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences. Students will learn about the main methodological approaches of the three academic traditions and the principles of what constitutes evidence and argumentation. They will also learn practical skills involved in setting up and carrying out research, and reporting results in written and oral form.
UCACCCOM21Intercultural CommunicationThis course develops students’ knowledge about and experience in dealing with interculturality and intercultural communication. You will learn about the role of culture, language, and power and how they impact human communication, the complexity of identity, the causes and consequences of processes such as stereotyping, and how people manage intercultural communication processes in these new situations. 
UCACCWRI21Creative WritingThe course offers assignments with options in literary fiction & non-fiction in prose & poetry. Neither fiction aimed at children/young adults nor other genre fiction feature. This course stresses process writing, rewriting & editing as essential to craft. Students read aloud their prose & poetry in writers’ workshops. Offering constructive verbal & written peer-criticism is an essential element. CW’s place in the academy is predicated on acts of practice-led research.
UCACCWRI31International JournalismThis course examines the encoding and decoding of print and online media texts. It addresses descriptive, discursive and tendentious news, press practice and readership expectations. It uses various hermeneutics to understand these phenomena in terms of ideology and power. In practice-based research, students learn to write publishable English texts in the ostensibly balanced/objective genres of news reports, profiles and features, plus the overtly opinionated genres of leading articles/editorials, columns and reviews, as well as analytical genres common to the social sciences.
UCACCMAT01Mathematics for Liberal Arts & ScienceIn this course, you will learn a large number of elementary but important mathematical concepts and techniques that have a wide range of applications in natural and social sciences. The focus is on the calculus skills required for further study in life sciences, earth sciences and economics, amongst others. Topics include basic and discrete mathematics, matrices, graphs and derivatives, functions of multiple variables and (constrained) optimization and basic integration, with applications to probability distributions.
UCACCMET13Introduction to RhetoricThe study of rhetoric provides students with core theories and practical skills in writing, presenting, and argumentation. You will learn the historical and theoretical foundations of the art of rhetoric, from its inception to its contemporary practical application in a range of discourses and contexts. You will have opportunities to practice rhetoric, presenting and debating, as well as through group-work and participation in field trips. 
UCACCMET14Programming: Techniques, Theory, and Multidisciplinary ApplicationsProgramming is an increasingly useful skill and aspect in contemporary research, and more generally, in our modern society. This course teaches practical programming skills relevant for students in any discipline (science, social science, or humanities), emphasizing its broad application in diverse academic contexts. Being grounded in foundational programming techniques and theory, the course builds a strong basis for understanding computational advancements and challenges in our contemporary world. Furthermore, it provides hands-on experience with diverse applications, enabling you to apply your programming skills throughout your (academic) career.

 

A further resource for developing academic writing and other skills is the Writing and Skills Centre.