Canberra's two main universities have unveiled new degrees to cater for increasing student demand for specialised courses.
The Australian National University and the University of Canberra say the courses also fill areas of skills shortage in the ACT and Australia.
The ANU will be the first university in the country to offer a bachelor of genetics this year, giving students access to a career in an emerging field made increasingly popular by forensic and crime television shows.
The university said the mainstream use of genetic technology had led to a nationwide shortage of broadly educated geneticists.
The course will cover population and evolutionary genetics and more recent developments in molecular and medical genetics, as well as bioinformatics and forensic studies.
ANU acting registrar Jenny Carlin said it was not yet clear how many enrolments the course would draw, as many round offers did not come through until January 21.
But she expected it to become a popular and sought-after degree over time.
''It is all about responding to student demand and providing pathways to careers when the labour force is constantly requiring new and different skills sets,'' Ms Carlin said.
She noted that while there was always a place for a broad and general degree, specialised qualifications tended to be more popular and ''hold more weight'' in the jobs market and were becoming increasingly popular.
The ANU also offers for the first time a bachelor of engineering in research and development, aimed at students interested in research and development in either industry or academia.
The bachelor of Asian studies is now an Asia-Pacific degree, and will require students to focus on a particular country rather than the region as a whole.
The University of Canberra's new degree courses were designed to respond directly to local skills shortages. The ACT Government financially supported the bachelor of urban and regional planning.
The four-year degree is designed to address the shortage of planners locally and nationally.
The new course will give graduates a broad skills base to understand complex planning issues.
A bachelor of cultural heritage and a bachelor of cultural heritage conservation will be offered within the newly announced Donald Horne Institute for Cultural Heritage.
Both degrees have received ACT Government funding, and aim to fill a gap in specialists needed to run the nation's galleries and museums, most of which are based in Canberra.
A local and national shortage of qualified midwives has led to a new bachelor of midwifery, and the information technology sector will be able to draw on a new pool of graduates from the master of information studies (online) course.
UC will offer more than 30 new or significantly revamped courses, including updated communications degrees to meet industry demands.
Pro-vice-chancellor of education Professor Carole Kayrooz said employers looked on specialised degrees favourably over general degrees because they produced job-ready graduates.
Many of UC's degrees were devised in consultation with industry groups.
''These new courses did not come out of the blue we ran a series of think-tanks to consult with the ACT Government and with industry groups and professional bodies to find areas of demand and work out what was needed to fill that demand,'' she said.
''As a university we also consider student-driven demand for courses but as a general rule it is always a mix of both students want to follow their interest but also keep a keen eye on their employment prospects.''
Professor Kayrooz said it was difficult to predict which new courses would be the most popular with students.