Liberal Arts MLibArts

Programme structure

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

The Liberal Arts degree programme is made up of compulsory (core) and optional modules, which are worth 15 or 30 credits each. Full-time undergraduate students need to complete modules worth a total of 120 credits each year.

Depending on your programme you can take up to 30 credits each year in another subject, for instance a language or business module, to develop career-related skills or just widen your intellectual horizons.

The fourth year of this programme allows you to advance your studies to the next level by honing and focussing your academic specialism via Masters-level modules.

Please note that modules offered are subject to change, depending on staff availability, timetabling, and demand.

Year 1

Your first year is designed to give you a strong foundation in the liberal arts by equipping you with a range of key intellectual tools that you can use throughout the rest of your degree and your working life after university. You will receive this foundation through core modules which give you a solid grounding in the skills, methods and principles of liberal learning. Alongside these modules, you will also take an ancient or modern language, or a module based on a quantitative methodology.

You will take 30 credits of the required skills modules and the remaining credits can be taken from the subject of your envisaged major.

Compulsory modules CodeModuleCredits LIB1101The Art of Reading and Writing 15 LIB1104Food, Famine and Feast15 LIB1103Body and Culture 15 Year 2

Your second year of study will enable you to consolidate your liberal arts foundations by furthering your critical tools and developing your intellectual abilities. You will take a practice-based core module which will build directly on the previous year’s work, developing your research, teamwork and problem-solving skills. You will also take further modules in a language or quantitative method, and optional modules selected from a diverse range of humanities and social science subjects. At the end of this year, and with the help of your academic adviser, you will nominate your ‘major’ – the area of study in which you will specialise for the rest of your degree.

Compulsory modules CodeModuleCredits Take LIB2000 or HUM2001 LIB2000Think Tank15 HUM2001Humanities in the Workplace 15 Year 3

In the four year programme this year is spent converting your degree into a Masters, by taking specialist modules in your nominated major, before moving on to the fourth year of the programme.

Year 4

You will take a range of modules in your Major, totalling 60 credits. At least half of these will be drawn from Masters-level modules. Under the supervision of an academic specialist in your chosen field, you will also research and write a dissertation, worth 60 credits. Successful completion of this stage of the programme will convert your Liberal Arts studies into a Master of Liberal Arts degree.