BA Liberal Arts

Example structure
Studying at Essex is about discovering yourself, so your course combines compulsory and optional modules to make sure you gain key knowledge in the discipline, while having as much freedom as possible to explore your own interests. Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore to ensure your course is as relevant and up-to-date as possible your core module structure may be subject to change.
For many of our courses you’ll have a wide range of optional modules to choose from – those listed in this example structure are just a selection of those available. The opportunity to take optional modules will depend on the number of core modules within any year of the course. In many instances, the flexibility to take optional modules increases as you progress through the course.
Our Programme Specification gives more detail about the structure available to our current first-year students, including details of all optional modules.
Year 1
The Enlightenment
Skills for University Studies
Critical Reasoning and Logical Argument (optional)
Literature: Origins and Transformations (optional)
Europe: Myth and Idea (optional)
Introduction to Contemporary Latin America (optional)
Year 2
The World in Question: the Social, Political and Psychological Legacies of the Enlightenment
America: Centres and Margins, Borders and Boundaries (optional)
Brazil in Focus: Business, Culture and Society (optional)
United States Literature Since 1850 (optional)
Final year
Dangerous Ideas: Essays and Manifestos as Social Criticism
Final Year Dissertation (optional)
Creative Writing: Oulipo and the Avant Garde (optional)
The Unconscious: Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society - Freud (optional)
The Unconscious: Analytical Psychology, Culture and Society - Jung (optional)
Year abroad
On your year abroad, you have the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Teaching
Taught through lectures and classes of about twenty students
A one-hour lecture and a one-hour class for each of your modules every week. Some core modules are organised as two-hour seminars, rather than lectures and classes
Your language classes involve lectures, classes and language laboratory sessions
Assessment
You are assessed on essays, book reviews, class presentations, projects, take-home exams and end-of-year unseen examinations
Your first-year marks do not count towards determining your overall degree class
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