Education Strength

The School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) offers students a diverse set of majors that explore the complex dynamics of human behaviour. Our courses are carefully designed to include a logical progression of units and assessments. This ensures that students develop disciplinary expertise and a demonstrable proficiency with key soft skills highly demanded in today’s global marketplace. Our graduates are able to think critically, write clearly, work collaboratively, and both consume and conduct research in their field.

We achieve this by ensuring that our curricular and extracurricular activities utilise a balance of proven and innovative teaching methods and activities. Our academic staff hold themselves to the highest teaching standards and continually refresh course content in response to evaluations from peers, students, and stakeholders in the community. Students benefit from a diverse mix of students and academic staff from around the world and enjoy a truly global education.

Education Strength: Social Transformation in Southeast Asia

The School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) at Monash University Malaysia focuses on social and political issues in the Southeast Asian region as its educational strength. Specifically, we are interested in the way certain individuals and/or groups of people are included or excluded because of certain social and/or political developments in a particular country. In considering these issues, we look at cultural, ethical and global issues and the way they can impact the region’s progress.

SASS’s approach to the study of these issues is unique because of our commitment to interdisciplinary methods of teaching. We pride ourselves on our use of theories drawn from disciplines such as gender studies, sociology, history, literary and film studies, anthropology, political science and international studies, to understand the current social and political issues in Southeast Asia. From theorising these issues, we then challenge our students to confront them through ethical, responsible, critical and informed thinking.

SASS’s educational strength supports Monash University’s overall mission to be socially inclusive. Our aim is to make our students aware of the concerns confronting modern Southeast Asia, and to equip them with the knowledge that is vital when facing these challenges. As education in the Humanities and Social Sciences should ideally transform students into ethically and socially responsible individuals, it is SASS’s vision that in meeting this ideal, we will be a leading school and university in Southeast Asian studies.

Our primary focus is on Malaysia, but we are also interested in comparative studies using Malaysia as a case study against which other countries in the Southeast Asian region and beyond can be compared and contrasted. While we emphasise the study of political and social inclusion/exclusion in this country, we challenge our students, especially the international students, to provide insights into their countries’ policies and practices in order to encourage debates. As a foreign and private university, Monash University Malaysia is uniquely positioned to develop such a learning environment – one that combines “insider’s” perspectives with those of our international friends. In this way, the educational emphasis shifts from merely “learning” about issues, to actively engaging with them, thereby challenging students to be more critical and questioning.

Our goal is to deliver a clear educational focus within the school that will be meaningful to the communities in this region. Our vision is to shape future leaders who are ethical, responsible, socially and political aware, progressive-looking and global in outlook.

All SASS Academic Staff are Members of the Education Strength.