B.A. B.Sc Liberal Arts and Sciences (Hons)

Compulsory module 1:

• Interdisciplinary Research

This overview module gives you a first taste for the diversity of methods used by researchers in a number of disciplines. We begin by considering the philosophical underpinnings of alternative approaches to social research and exploring the relationship between theory and data. The module then moves on to introduce and present examples of research using an array of different approaches.

Further modules

• 2 choices from main pathway
• 1 choice from a different pathway category

Compulsory module 2:

• Theories and Practice of Understanding

This module is a key foundation for your studies, covering issues surrounding the nature of knowledge, its acquisition and its communication. Key questions that we will explore are: What is knowledge? Is there a difference between knowledge and information? What are the relationships between knowledge and values? What are skills and attitudes? How is knowledge created, learned and disseminated? Is knowledge something universal or is it something that changes across time and space? What is a ‘knowledge society’? And what are ‘life-long’ and ‘life-wide’ learning?

Starting from issues concerning the ways human beings learn, this module will unpack the very notion of knowledge in all its complexity to pave the way to future learning about the nature and scope of different disciplines and the concept of interdisciplinarity.

Further modules

• 2 choices from main pathway
• 1 choice from a different pathway category

Compulsory module 3:

• Preparing for Professional Practice

Just as your broad knowledge and research expertise will help you stand out from graduates of more specialised degrees, so the unique Surrey approach to your professional attributes and experience will differentiate you from students on other liberal arts degrees.

This module will prompt you to explore concepts such as professions, professionalism, leadership and the application of subject-specific as well as transferable skills in a professional setting. We will encourage you to reflect on the meanings and practices of these concepts in preparation for your Professional Training year, enabling you to hit the ground running when you start your placement. You will also learn how to research a professional environment and reflect on the research process by incorporating feedback from peers and others.

Further modules

• 2 choices from main pathway
• 1 choice from a different pathway category

Compulsory Module 4:

• Enhancing Interdisciplinary Skills

This module builds your knowledge and understanding of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, and the ways they are researched. You will reflect on the way disciplines embody specific ways of researching and communicating knowledge that are typical of certain communities of scholars. At the same time we will discuss the increasing debate about the importance of interdisciplinarity, connecting it to pre-industrial ways of knowing. We will investigate interdisciplinarity's potential as a means for addressing issues from different but complementary vantage points, building links to examples in problem solving and policy making.

Further modules

• 2 choices from main pathway
• 1 choice from a different pathway category

Assessed Professional Training placement

• Dissertation

• 2 module choices from main pathway
• 1 module choice from a different pathway category

• 2 module choices from main pathway
• 1 module choice from a different pathway category