Rhodes University Faculty Of Humanities About Us
About the Faculty
The Faculty of Humanities is by far the largest Faculty at Rhodes University.
Comprising 11 Academic departments, 2 Schools and 7 Affiliated Institutes, the Faculty is largely responsible for growth in student numbers at Rhodes over the past few years. Out of 7682 students currently registered at Rhodes university for 2019, 3166 (41%) of those are registered in the Humanities Faculty. 2531 of those are undergraduate students and 635 are postgraduate students.
The Faculty offers a rich variety of courses within four broad categories:
1. Arts (Fine Art, Drama, Music)
2. Languages (isiXhosa, English, Afrikaans, English Language and Linguistics, French, German, Latin, Greek)
3. Professional Offering (Journalism and Media Studies)
4. Social Studies (Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Political Studies, History, Philosophy)
The Faculty of Humanities offers a very wide range of possible degrees and course combinations. Students can major in Journalism and Politics, Classics and French, German, isiXhosa, Afrikaans or any other language offered, or Management and Industrial Sociology or Organisational Psychology, or Fine Art and History, or Information Systems and English or Philosophy and Anthropology, or Computer Science and Music, or Mathematics and Drama or Linguistics.
The Faculty offers an excellent liberal arts education – an education for life and an education which is formative for almost any career choice. A liberal arts education provides students with critical reasoning skills, in particular the ability to analyse and evaluate arguments, to probe for hidden assumptions, to organise complex material in coherent ways; with an ability to understand the views of others; the ability to communicate well; a capacity to cope with ambiguity and uncertainty; and an acknowledgement of one’s own ignorance. It is an education that introduces students to the formative moments of their histories, their societies and their identities. It allows students to enjoy the worlds of music and drama and literature and languages.
It opens worlds. It provides an education and not training. As such it provides students with the critical skills and characteristics which are so important for our individual and national development. All of the above may be combined with degrees or courses which are more immediately career oriented than the liberal arts education. Specialised degrees in Journalism or Fine Art or Music are offered, but all within the context of a broader rather than a technical education.