Breadth Units - Should they be compulsory or a choice? || UTAS

Many of the degrees that are offered at the University of Tasmania now come with the requirement that as a student, you complete at least two breadth units. According to UTAS' website, breadth units are "designed to provide you with the skills and deep understanding to make a difference in your own life and that of others".

Breadth units take up valuable course space within a degrees make up and are designed to be a fully fledged unit within itself, with many being just as demanding as a normal unit, often offering assignments, readings, quizzes and discussion posts. The two breadth units I have chosen to do are Living and Working with Cultural Diversity and Forensic Science in Society. The second one I am currently undertaking.

Since I started attending university over a year ago I have heard mixed opinions about breadth units. They offer a range of skills and though they are compulsory, there is a wide variety you can choose from which often leads to exploring something you might not have otherwise. However they take up the space of a unit in which you could be doing something that ties in with your degree and are often an added stress to the already large list that university students deal with.

I have had both positive and negative experiences with the breadth units I have taken. I found the first unit I took (Living and Working with Cultural Diversity) didn't offer me any new and valuable lessons about the society I am in. I found it tedious because I felt I had learnt the content through my high school years and much of it fell into the "common sense" category. However, with Forensic Science in Society, it is extremely interesting and a course I never would have looked at if I hadn't of had to choose a breadth unit. I am learning a lot and enjoying it, though it seems to have the same workload (if not more) than a normal unit.

Chris Ham, a second year UTAS student, when asked about breadth units said "I don't think breadth units should be compulsory, I think that students should be able to study exactly what they want to."

"I understand what the university is going for with breadth units but I don't think making them compulsory in many degrees is the way to go about it," Mr Ham said.

Many breadth units can be chosen as an elective unit too, which then begs the question: why are they compulsory? They are designed to get students to open their eyes to certain issues, but we attend university to study the courses we want to benefit our career. Must we pick classes that we have little interest in or that will not advantage us within our career choices?