Trent Durham launches new course

Students at Trent University’s Oshawa campus will certainly have something to think about.

The university is launching a new bachelor of arts degree program in communications and critical thinking, citing a “response to increasing employer demand for excellent communicators, problem solvers and lifelong learners.”

“The communications and critical thinking degree is an excellent addition to Trent University Durham’s wide-ranging program offerings and comes in response to an understanding of the highly competitive job market students are facing,” states Joe Muldoon, head of Trent University Durham, in a news release. “The program is part of our efforts to grow unique programs that lend themselves well to the intimate environment and smaller class sizes that the Trent Durham campus offers.”

The three-year degree program will be accepting students for this fall, as well as a winter and summer intake next year. The program will see students learn in various fields of humanities and social sciences before going on to a project-based course in their third and final year, where students will have the chance to conduct research on a specific issue related to the course.

“Communications and critical thinking makes visible something that all university programs aim to do: help students become logical and creative thinkers and clear communicators,” states Dr. Joel Baetz, an assistant professor of English at Trent University Durham and one of the members of the committee that helped develop the new program, in the same news release. “The difference is that the program will introduce students to the practical benefits of interdisciplinary thinking, so that they can see that their learning is academically rigorous and relevant.”