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School for Cross-faculty Studies Liberal Arts

Degree Overview

Liberal Arts students in a workshop

Course structure

Modules

Pathways

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

For the most up to date information, please visit our Entry Requirements page.

UCAS code

LA99

Course duration

  • 3 years full-time; or

  • 4 years full-time with intercalated year spent either studying abroad or on work placement

Students are automatically enrolled on the three-year course, however you have the option to change to a four-year course with an intercalated year in the third year. During the intercalated year, you may pursue a study abroad programme or a work placement (subject to you meeting departmental academic requirements).

CATS

An Honours Degree requires a minimum of 360 CATS during the course, comprising 120 CATS per year

Award

Bachelor of Arts (BA) Liberal Arts

Location

University of Warwick, Coventry

Tuition fees

More Information

Other course costs

There may be costs associated with other items or services such as academic texts, course notes, and trips associated with your course.

For further information on the typical additional costs please see the Additional Costs page.

Read the transcript for this video.

We believe the best way to shape the intellectual leaders of the future is by training them to tackle the most difficult and pressing problems facing our world today. We do this through our unique Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach. This is where you understand a topic by examining complex problems from a variety of perspectives, including the social, political, scientific, historic, artistic and cultural, and you’ll develop your own distinctive stance on that problem.

All of our Liberal Arts core modules are delivered using PBL workshops, which are defined by student-led research-based inquiry. There are no formal lectures, and you’ll instead spend your time in the classroom debating, framing, and presenting research questions and interventions. This is a learning method that’s guided by your specific interests, and so content (explored through in-depth case studies) changes depending on the student cohort.

Your optional modules from across the University may include:

  • Lectures

  • Seminars

  • Tutorials

  • Laboratories

You'll be taught by academics from different disciplines and your role will be to bring together these various approaches in a way that makes sense to you.

"We are encouraged to look at situations from a variety of perspectives"

"One thing that really makes (Liberal Arts at Warwick) stand out is its emphasis on Problem-Based Learning. (...) In a nutshell it means that we don’t learn in the traditional university manner. There aren’t huge lecture theatres with hundreds of students that you don’t know, there tends to be really small classroom sizes with up to 15 people. This means that the learning environment is much more inviting and you actually get spoken to rather than spoken at. So this is where PBL comes in. Rather than looking at learning the same as everyone else, we are encouraged to look at situations from a variety of perspectives."

Olamide Ajisafe

Liberal Arts student

Hear more from Olamide about how you'll learn

"A Problem-Based Learning classroom is a lively space of discussion"

"A Problem-Based Learning classroom is a lively space of discussion where students have gone out, conducted their own independent research, shared their ideas with each other and together worked as part of a team to produce a response which we then unpick collectively and explore further together."

Dr Kirsten Harris

Senior Teaching Fellow, Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts student working, writing

Your assessments will allow you to develop the way you address problems by using a variety of perspectives from the Arts, Sciences and Social Sciences. We'll teach you to use a range of research methods, enabling you to approach contemporary problems critically and creatively.

You'll be assessed in the form of traditional assignments (essays, case studies and written examinations) and innovative assignments (creative projects, portfolios and performance). You'll contribute to group projects and deliver extended pieces of writing (for your final-year dissertation) as well as sit mid and end of year short tests and traditional end of year written exams. You might choose to present your work in a public forum such as the British Conference of Undergraduate Research or the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR). You'll also have the opportunity to design your own research-based assessments.


"The International Conference of Undergraduate Research is a chance to learn in multiple senses. You present your own research in an interdisciplinary setting, and you also learn from your peers presenting. I enjoyed learning things that lay outside the disciplines I have explored in Liberal Arts."

Ceara Webster

Liberal Arts student

Hear more about ICUR 2019


All of our assessments are designed to be practical opportunities for learning, not just tests of content knowledge. We'll talk with you about how to use your assessments to enrich your professional skillset, develop your academic knowledge, and build your leadership and organisational skills.

The methods of assessment will vary according to the optional modules that you choose each year from across the University. For example, if you follow the Disciplinary Interest pathway in Life Sciences, you may also undertake laboratory-based assessments.

Year One

Liberal Arts core modules

    Optional modules

    You'll also choose optional modules from a wide range of modules offered by departments across the University. The ratio of coursework to exams will vary according to which optional modules you choose.

    Year Two

    Liberal Arts core modules

    Optional (pathway) modules

    You'll also take modules which correspond to your chosen Disciplinary Interest pathway/Specialist Interest pathway. The ratio of coursework to exams will vary according to which optional modules you take on your pathway.

    Final Year

    Liberal Arts module

    In your final year, the Liberal Arts core module, the Dissertation, is 100% coursework.

    Optional (pathway) modules

    You'll also take optional modules which correspond to your chosen Disciplinary Interest pathway/Specialist Interest pathway. The ratio of coursework to exams will vary according to which optional modules you take on your pathway.

    Example assessments


    Liberal Arts workshop with students and staff

    Your contact hours will vary depending on the modules you choose to study, but most of our students take between eight and twelve classroom hours per week (depending on their pathway). Fewer hours doesn't mean less learning, however: all of our full-time students are expected to work around forty hours per week.

    Liberal Arts modules (both our core modules and our optional ones) are typically arranged around weekly two-hour workshops that are mandatory, but there will be a range of other mandatory and optional events associated with particular modules: film screenings, research seminars, student-led discussion groups, and tutor office hours.

    Your optional modules may be taught by other departments across the University - this depends on your specific interests. Other departments may use different teaching and assessment methods, and offerings may involve more or less formal teaching time per week than our Liberal Arts core modules. You can find information about minimum number of timetabled hours for these modules on departmental websites.

    Example of a Liberal Arts student's timetable

    Year 2, Term 1