Course overview

On this interdisciplinary degree we will encourage you to think independently as you work closely with experts from across the University. In small groups you will explore challenging problems from different times and places, using a toolkit of emergent skills to create your own responses. This course is ideal for passionate students who want to learn across disciplines and build their degree around their interests and ambitions.

Dedicated expert tutors with a passion for liberal education lead the Liberal Arts modules. These modules focus on investigating key issues from multiple disciplinary perspectives and developing your critical thinking skills. You will learn how to analyse cutting-edge problems and to think outside the box as you evaluate evidence and interpretations. These modules will also help you to build your primary and secondary research skills. We will ensure that you have the intellectual tools needed to undertake advanced undergraduate research by your final year. We will also prepare you to engage in different modules as you explore what Warwick has to offer across the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences.

Within the first year, you will choose either a disciplinary route or a bespoke pathway, bringing together modules most suited to your interests and strengths. You will spend 25-50% of your degree studying modules relating to your chosen route/pathway. These modules will give you the knowledge, skills, and expertise to become a leader in an area you are passionate about. Our tutors will guide your decision about which route or pathway to choose and will provide support to you throughout the degree. As your interests may develop over time, a unique feature of this degree is the ability to adapt your route/pathway further down the line.

Liberal Arts at Warwick aims to develop innovative critical thinkers who will be able to confront the global challenges of the past, present, and future. As such, we also offer the opportunity of extending your degree by a year either to study abroad or to complete a work placement. To give you the time to consider whether these opportunities are right for you, we automatically enrol all of our new students on the three-year course. Once you join us, you will have the option to change to a four-year course with an intercalated year of study abroad or work placement in the third year. The year spent studying abroad or on work placement is subject to departmental academic requirements.

The skills you develop during your degree are as important as the course content. You will also have the opportunity to complete co-curricular certificates and short work placements. These will help you develop your professional skills, giving you the edge when it comes to your employability. You will have the support of our dedicated Employability and Placement Manager who provides one-to-one careers guidance.

What is Liberal Arts?

A Liberal Arts education puts critical thinking and innovative problem solving at the heart of learning. It is based on a long tradition of thinking across different disciplines to solve the most pressing challenges of the day and of the human experience. It aims to form critical global citizens who will be future leaders and independent thinkers in their own field. By teaching you how to learn rather than what to learn, a Liberal Arts education will expose you to a broad range of knowledge, allowing you to specialise in an issue or problem that matters most to you. Find out more about our approach to liberal education at Warwick.Link opens in a new window

Study abroad

As part of your Liberal Arts degree, you have the unique opportunity to study abroad for one year at one of our Liberal Arts partners. We have exclusive partnerships with specialist Liberal Arts programmes in both Europe and Canada:

• Concordia University (Montréal, Canada)
• University College Leiden (The Hague, Netherlands)
• Constructor University (Bremen, Germany)
• Leuphana University, (Lüneburg, Germany)
• University College Freiburg (Freiburg, Germany)

By studying at one of our Liberal Arts partners, you will gain a unique understanding of the approach taken to liberal education within different educational cultures. This will allow you to gain an understanding of the global context of your degree. The year spent studying abroad will not contribute towards the overall grade of your degree, however, it will be recorded on your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR).

During your study abroad experience, you will develop knowledge and understanding of a different culture. Although the teaching is in English at our partner institutions, we strongly encourage students to acquire competency in another language while studying abroad.

Alternatively, you may also have the opportunity to study abroad at one of the University of Warwick's partner institutions. Please note that the availability of these partners vary each year, and we are unable to guarantee their availability for all students.

We also offer short-term study abroad experiences through our School for Cross-faculty Studies (SCFS) Venice programme, which includes two SCFS Venice modules:

• A Sustainable Serenissima: Water and the Future of Venice (content applies to 2023/24 year of study)
• Venice: Resistance and Representation (content applies to 2023/24 year of study)

As a Liberal Arts student, you will have priority on these two-week intensive modules. You can study both if you would like to stay in Venice for a month! Venice is a fascinating case study for problem-based learning about sustainability challenges and for exploring traditions of resistance from the Renaissance to the present day. These modules can be taken after your second year (or your third year if you take a study abroad/work placement year). The work you do on these modules will count towards your final year of study.

For more information about studying abroad please see our Study Abroad pages.

Core modules

Year One

You will study the following core modules:

You will select at least one of the following ‘Critical Issues’ modules:

You will also select one of the following research training modules:

The other half of your first year will consist of optional modules from across the University. This is your time to start exploring your interests and finding out where your passions lie.

At the end of your first year, you will choose either a route or a pathway:

On a route you will spend 25%-50% of your degree with one of our partner departments, developing subject-specific expertise. We have routes with the following departments: Classics, Design Studies, Economics, Education, English, Film and Television Studies, Global Sustainable Development, History, Life Sciences, Modern Languages and Cultures, Philosophy, and Theatre and Performance Studies. Your route will be recognised in your degree title. For example, if you choose to study the Economics route, your degree title will be ‘Liberal Arts with Economics’. Alongside the modules directly related to your route, you can also take a selection of other optional modules from across the University linked to your interests.

On a pathway, you are free to build a flexible degree that reflects your interests. You will spend 50% of your degree studying modules related to your pathway, developing interdisciplinary expertise in your area of interest. We will work with you to help you design a pathway that enables you to study the areas that matter most to you. In the past, our students have designed pathways around the following topics: Apocalyptic Studies, Black British Studies, Business Ethics, Culture and Identity, Gender and Society, Health and Human Society, Imagination in Childhood Development, Social Justice, and Sustainability.

Year Two

You will study one core module:

The remaining modules in the second year will be from your chosen route or pathway. Depending on your pathway, you may need to study certain modules to fulfil the pathway requirements.

Final Year

Core module

In your second year and in your final year, you are required to take three interdisciplinary Liberal Arts optional modules (see below). These modules include the two modules taught in Venice. You may choose how many to take in each year (for example, two in your second year and one in your final year).

The remaining modules in your final year will be from your chosen route or pathway. If you choose to study a route, you may need to study certain modules to fulfil the route requirements.

Optional modules

Liberal Arts optional modules

All students in Liberal Arts are required to take three optional modules offered by the Liberal Arts Department in their second and final year (though you can take more if you like!). The optional modules offered can vary from year to year, and new optional modules may be added to this list over time.

• Posthumous Geographies I: Underworlds
• Posthumous Geographies II: Paradises
• The Quest 1: Departures and Heroic Journeys
• The Quest 2: Exile and Homecoming
• The Liquid Continent
• The Apocalyptic Imaginary
• Quantitative Research Methods: Understanding Relationships in Data
• A Sustainable Serenissima: Water and the Future of Venice (taught in Venice)
• Venice: Resistance and Representation (taught in Venice)

Route/pathway modules

As part of your route/pathway you will also take modules from across the University. Below are just a few examples of such modules that our current students have taken:

• Critical Security Studies (Politics and International Studies)
• Being Human: Human Nature from the Renaissance to Freud (History)
• Introduction to Art History: The Natural World and the Arts of Modernity (History of Art)
• Economics 1 (Economics)
• Molecules, Cells and Organisms (Life Sciences)
• Environmental Principles of Global Sustainable Development (Global Sustainable Development)

Assessment

Assessments in the Liberal Arts Department enable you to develop your expertise and advanced skills in addressing different kinds of problems. You will use a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives, including from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. You will learn how to deploy a variety of research methods, and will be well-equipped with a strong theoretical foundation that will empower you to approach difficult problems critically, analytically, and creatively. The range of assessments in Liberal Arts thus combines the traditional (essays and written examinations) with the innovative (creative projects, podcasts, portfolios, video projects, policy proposals, and performance).

Our assessments are designed to be authentic learning experiences. Few single assessments are worth more than half of a module’s total mark. Assessment types vary to support the development of academic and professional skills.

Assessment methods will differ according to the optional modules that you choose from across the University. For example, if you choose to take modules in the School of Life Sciences, you may undertake laboratory-based assessments.

Assessments in each year of the degree contribute to the degree classification. Assessments taken in the study abroad year are pass/fail and do not contribute to the degree classification.

Teaching

In Liberal Arts we use a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach. This is where you understand a topic by examining complex problems from a variety of perspectives through hands-on active learning. You will then develop your own distinctive stance on that problem. Our students are co-creators of knowledge in the classroom.

The Liberal Arts modules are delivered using PBL workshops, which are shaped by the independent research conducted by students. Rather than attending formal lectures, you will spend your time in the classroom debating, framing, and presenting research questions/responses. This is an active learning method that relies on your specific interests. Therefore, the content we teach (explored through in-depth case studies) changes from year to year depending on the student cohort and current events.

Optional modules from across the University may involve lectures, seminars, tutorials, and/or laboratories. You will be taught by tutors from different disciplines. We will support you to bring together these various approaches in a way that makes sense to you.

Class sizes

We believe that students learn best when doing hands-on activities in small groups. Modules in the Liberal Arts Department typically range from 5 to 18 students per class. Most of the core modules have around 8 to 18 students per class. The size of our classes are designed to create a close and supportive learning community, ideal for Problem-Based Learning.

Students taking optional modules in other departments may find that these class sizes are more varied.

Typical contact hours

Contact hours vary significantly depending on your route/pathway modules. A Liberal Arts student can typically expect between 8 and 12 contact hours a week, including route/pathway modules. You may have more than 12 hours, depending on your module choices. Module offerings in other departments may involve different contact hours per week.

Core Liberal Arts modules in the first and second year consist of one, two-hour workshop per week. Much of our teaching takes place over two terms. Most year-long modules have around 44 hours of teaching time each. We also offer regular out-of-classroom activities, including film screenings, skills sessions, discussion groups, reading groups, and field trips. We also offer a wide range of optional core modules; these are often taught over one term, or in some cases, in an intensive two-week format in Term 3 (such as our Venice modules).

In addition, across the first year you will attend ten one-hour sessions as part of an introductory module (Liberal Arts: Principles and Praxis).

The final-year core Dissertation module usually involves six hours of lectures/ group discussion sessions and 12 supervision sessions across three terms.

Tuition fees

Tuition fees cover the majority of the costs of your study, including teaching and assessment. Fees are charged at the start of each academic year. If you pay your fees directly to the University, you can choose to pay in instalments.

Placements and work experience

As part of your Liberal Arts degree, you will also have the opportunity to undertake a work placement. This will enable you to develop your skills in a professional environment. It is an opportunity to apply theory to practice and learn from industry professionals. The two work placement options are:

1. Year-long work placement

You will complete a four-year degree and your work placement will take place in your third year. The work placement can take place in or outside the UK and will be formally recognised on your Higher Education Achievement Report.

2. Short work placement

We also support students to undertake shorter work placements throughout the year.

Our students have been successful in securing work placements with employers from the private, public, and third sectors. These employers include research institutions, governmental bodies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), media organisations, fashion companies, environmental consultancies, financial consultancies, and many others. They have undertaken diverse roles such as Marketing Assistant, Researcher, Project Officer, and Editor.

Your career

Graduates from Liberal Arts courses pursue a wide range of careers and postgraduate study. As a Warwick Liberal Arts student, you will equally have a range of career opportunities available to you. The variety of opportunities will depend on your chosen pathway.

Liberal Arts graduates tend to gravitate towards research-intensive and/or leadership roles, where they can use their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Our graduates have worked in a diverse range of fields and sectors, with recent graduates in the public, private, and third sectors.

Find out more about Warwick Liberal Arts careers.Link opens in a new window

Helping you find the right career

We have a dedicated Employability and Placement Manager in our department who provides careers guidance. They work with employers to source work placement opportunities for our students and offer guidance to students before and during placements.

The University's Student Opportunity team also supports students to develop employability skills and guidance on careers options.

Find out more about careers support at Warwick

Liberal Arts at Warwick

Ask the questions that matter.

A liberal education is based on the idea of acquiring knowledge and understanding worthy of a free, active and engaged global citizen. You will ask insightful, investigative questions, and you will not be limited to a single academic discipline.

Your degree in Liberal Arts will demonstrate the ability to inspire others, provide creative leadership, and to untangle the trickiest and most complex problems. These are highly regarded skills that you can apply to any position in industry, creative endeavours, or future study.

Get to know us better by exploring our departmental website.

Hear from our current Liberal Arts student bloggers PrishikaLink opens in a new window, TenzinLink opens in a new window, and CharlotteLink opens in a new window.

Related degrees

• Economics (BSc)
• Biological Sciences (BSc)
• Global Sustainable Development (BASc)
• English Literature (BA)
• History (BA)
• Philosophy (BA)
• Modern Languages (BA)

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