2026-10-17
ACU Secondary Education and Arts Double Degree: Major and Minor Choices
Understand how ACU’s Secondary Education and Arts double degree connects an Arts major and minor with teaching areas, including its 2027 credit structure and international campuses.
ACU’s Bachelor of Education (Secondary)/Bachelor of Arts combines preparation for secondary teaching with disciplinary study in Arts. It is a double degree with two bachelor's awards, rather than a single Bachelor of Education spanning two teaching sectors.
The course is listed in ACU’s secondary-teaching workshop. Its 2027 handbook describes a four-year, 320-credit-point structure. The key question for an applicant is how the Arts major and minor connect with approved teaching areas, rather than simply whether two degree titles sound broader than one. ACU 2027 Secondary Education/Arts handbook
What does Arts contribute to the teaching pathway?
In this course, Arts disciplinary study supports the subjects you prepare to teach. The handbook lists options including English, History, Mathematics and Visual Arts. “Arts” should therefore not be read as meaning only visual or performing arts. The curriculum, pedagogy and assessment units must relate to the chosen Arts major and minor. Handbook study components
Equally, the broader university's Arts major list is not a menu from which every subject can automatically become a teaching area in this double degree. A discipline may appear elsewhere at ACU without being an available teaching combination for your particular course and campus.
Start by identifying the school subjects you hope to teach. Then check the corresponding approved major and minor within this named double degree. This is a practical way to investigate course fit, not a new admission condition.
Follow the major and minor through the credit structure
The 2027 Handbook divides the degree into a 170-credit-point Bachelor of Education component and a 150-credit-point Bachelor of Arts component.
Within the Arts component, it lists:
- An 80-credit-point major for the first teaching area.
- A 40-credit-point minor for the second teaching area.
- 10 credit points of community engagement.
- 20 credit points of core studies.
These Arts components total 150 credit points; together with the 170-credit-point education component, they make up the 320-credit-point double degree. ACU 2027 Secondary Education/Arts Handbook
The distinction between a major and a minor matters. The handbook allocates different amounts of study to the first and second teaching areas; it does not describe two equal-sized majors. Nor is the credit breakdown a semester timetable. Unit order and prerequisites need to follow the applicable course plan.
Keep similarly named courses separate
Bachelor of Education (Secondary)/Bachelor of Arts (Design Innovation and Technologies) is a separately named double degree in the workshop. Its specialised title and course structure should not be shortened into this general Arts double degree.
The single Bachelor of Education (Secondary) is also a different course. Options available within that qualification, including its Special Education major pathway, should not be assumed to transfer into the Arts double. Confirm the rule in the exact award before building a study plan around it.
Check the international campus and practical arrangements
The 2027 handbook lists Brisbane, Melbourne and Strathfield as approved campuses, but expressly excludes international enrolment at Brisbane. International applicants should investigate Melbourne or Strathfield and confirm their intended teaching-area combination and intake there.
The credit structure alone does not establish placement dates, a preferred school or an individual timetable. Check professional-experience obligations for this course before organising other commitments; another teaching degree's placement-day total is not a substitute.
Completing two awards does not automatically confer teacher registration or permission to teach every subject studied. The useful feature to examine is the defined connection between education studies, an Arts major and an Arts minor. Whether that combination fits your intended teaching areas is the decision to resolve first.
Sources: ACU’s official teaching workshop, slide 8; named 2027 handbook sections checked on 17 October 2026.