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30% of students drop out or transfer from this specific course. Consider asking why on an open day.
BA Liberal Arts
About this course
Liberal arts is an approach to university education built on the conviction that the most important knowledge does not respect disciplinary boundaries. The world is complex, interconnected, and shaped by forces that can only be understood by drawing on multiple ways of knowing: the sciences and mathematics, history and philosophy, geography, literature, and art all illuminate different dimensions of the same phenomena. A liberal arts degree asks you to move across these boundaries deliberately, developing the intellectual flexibility, critical thinking, and breadth of knowledge that any truly demanding problem requires. At the University of Essex, this four-year programme treats knowledge as rooted in the experiences of people across the world and shaped by memory, culture, landscape, and myth. You will study across disciplines that are not usually brought together, developing a broad knowledge base and the capacity to make connections that specialists working within a single field cannot make. The programme challenges you to think about the foundations of different kinds of knowledge and to develop the research, analytical, and communication skills that apply across all of them. Liberal arts graduates are valued in roles that require the ability to work across disciplines, to think originally about complex problems, and to communicate effectively across different audiences and contexts. Careers in journalism, policy, education, arts and cultural organisations, international development, consultancy, research, and the creative industries are all accessible. The breadth of skills the degree develops is particularly relevant in a world where the most significant problems, from climate change to public health to inequality, do not fit within any single discipline. Many graduates pursue postgraduate study in a specific field, using their liberal arts training as a foundation for deeper specialisation.
Syllabus & Modules
Typical curriculumStudent Satisfaction
National Student Survey - 15 respondents (70% response rate)
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