Bachelor of Intercultural Studies

About This Course

For over 40 years, Tabor’s ministry training has been built upon a foundation of contextually relevant and culturally sensitive engagement.

Since the 1990s, Tabor’s Intercultural Studies programs (Diploma/Bachelor) has prepared students for intercultural life and work from within the Christian tradition. Today, our graduates are employed in a diverse range of vocational and professional contexts, both in Australia and across the world.

The Tabor program is designed to achieve two key outcomes. It aims to develop graduates with the ability to engage interculturally with cultural intelligence and to critically analyse and reflect on past and present engagement in intercultural contexts. The theoretical and practical components build upon the Christian tradition and Biblical values of dignity, humility, respect and servanthood. The course subjects address personal, theological, historical, linguistic, cultural, ministry, experiential and religious dimensions associated with intercultural engagement in contexts such as humanitarian crises, church development and literacy in remote communities.

Tabor’s programs are developed in the belief that every person is created by God, an individual of infinite worth and potential. The beauty of Intercultural Studies at Tabor is that it takes that radical belief and enacts it in contexts where culturally-minded ministry is most needed. If you share this vision, and if you have a desire to serve, then Intercultural Studies may be the right path for you.

Read about Rachel’s experience in the Bachelor of Intercultural Studies.

Professional Outcomes

Graduates may find both short-term and long-term employment in Australia and beyond with various overseas mission, ministry, denominational or Not-For-Profit organisations. Within Australia, graduates can also join and provide leadership to mission support groups or work with people of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds in appropriate ways in church, para-church, government or community settings.

Their work may also involve working alongside those on the margins. There really is no limit to your options in this field. As an Intercultural Studies graduate, you will be equipped with informed and researched anthropology, providing an excellent and comprehensive foundation to allow you to serve reflectively, effectively and practically in intercultural contexts.

Course Outcomes

Graduates will be:

• Lifelong learners whose critical thinking is enriched by the living Christian tradition.
• Holistic individuals whose vocational competence is enriched by active Christian values.
• Leading members of various communities whose strategic vision embraces the global context and whose contribution is expressed in multifaceted care and concern for others.

Graduates will be able to:

• Demonstrate a broad and coherent knowledge of the motivation, concepts, principles, approaches, and practices for effective functioning in an intercultural setting in Australia or overseas, with the opportunity to specialise in a particular intercultural setting (e.g. TESOL classroom, with a Christian not for profit organisation).
• Critically and creatively reflect on intercultural theory and practice (including one’s own involvement in this), including an ability to draw critically from the Christian tradition.
• Explain the relevance and influence of personal and cultural considerations on engagement in an intercultural setting in a clear and coherent fashion.
• Demonstrate a broad range of cognitive, creative and communication skills needed to participate in an intercultural setting, including well-developed cultural intelligence skills, as well as specialized skills relating to the student’s specific vocational setting.
• Critically engage significant intercultural life, theological and strategic issues in the light of their knowledge of intercultural theory and practice and the Christian tradition.
• Communicate and engage with people from different cultural and religious backgrounds in an effective and respectful fashion.
• Contextualise the Christian message and forms in different cultural settings
• Examine their spiritual formation and identify their vocational direction.