Course General Description

The purpose of the BA (Visual Art) Degree is to develop students' creative, imaginative and critical knowledge, skills and academic research capabilities to practice as artists within the domains of the visual-cultural industries, and/or to engage in postgraduate study in visual art. The BA (Visual Art) Degree programme will equip students with a thorough knowledge of visual art practices, discourses, theories and research methodologies. The programme facilitates the creation of meaning through art; research within art history and criticism; contemporary artistic production7 civic agency; visual identity and visual technologies. The programme will focus on creative and critical thinking according to ethical and professional standards, in order to explore experimental, transformative and inter-disciplinary approaches to the making, reception and analysis of art within pan-African and international contexts. In keeping with the University's focus on promoting African scholarship, the BA (Visual Art) programme addresses the need for academically adept, discipline-sophisticated and civic-minded graduates who are able to respond to the challenges of visual culture in a globalized environment. The programme is accessible to students in the Faculty of Humanities who wish to study Art History and Theory up to level three. The Department of Visual Art may recommend Visual Art students access to certain cognate modules offered in the Faculty of Humanities.

School General Description

Vibrant, multicultural and dynamic, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) shares the pace and energy of cosmopolitan Johannesburg, the city whose name it carries. Proudly South African, the university is alive down to its African roots, and well-prepared for its role in actualising the potential that higher education holds for the continent's development. UJ has transformed into a diverse, inclusive, transformational and collegial institution, with a student population of over 50 000, of which more than 3000 are international students from 80 countries. This makes UJ one of the largest contact universities in South Africa (SA) from the 26 public universities that make up the higher education system. The vision of the UJ is to be an international University of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future". The mission can be described as follows: "inspiring its community to transform and serve humanity through innovation and the collaborative pursuit of knowledge". These are underpinned by four values, namely: imagination, conversation, regeneration and ethical foundation. The six strategic objectives provide a focused means for realising the Vision, Mission and Values of the University as set out above. They further represent a re-working of the original UJ Strategic Thrusts 2020 in the context of a wider positioning of the University as "The Pan-African" Centre for Critical Intellectual Inquiry, with the primary goal of achieving global excellence and stature. "