Stage 1

Modes of Reasoning I and II One of the impediments to communication between different academic disciplines is their uses of different ways of making, and validating, arguments and proofs. This module examines the varying modes of developing scientific, social scientific and humanities discourses to facilitate cross-disciplinary understanding of qualitative and quantitative reasoning.

Ways of thinking are shaped in often unseen ways by changes in the technologies we use to move, to communicate, to exchange and to create. This module examines the technological and economic revolutions that shape human cultures, with a particular focus both on the 19th and early 20th century roots of modernity and the impacts of recent and developing technological innovations on our ways of imagining ourselves and others.

Current events are shaped by a wide field of forces – economics, ideologies, demographics, environments and more. This module calls on students to be aware of current events and developments across a wide range of contexts and disciplines. It encourages multi-dimensional understandings of the contemporary world – from the perspective of the arts, the social sciences, history and politics – in order to gain a broad vision of the world and the means of conceptualising how to affect and change it.

You also take 30 credits in a chosen language and 30 credits from a select range of options to reflect your personal interests and aspirations.

Stage 2

One of the core concepts behind the Liberal Arts degree is maintaining communication and debate between the diverse groups of students the programme attracts. Through collective discussion and debate around seminal readings, this module provides you with a broad-ranging grasp of the full field of social sciences, physical sciences, arts and humanities.

You also take 30 credits in a chosen language and 60 credits from a select range of options to reflect personal interest and future ambition.

Stage 3

During the final year of your programme, you complete a dissertation, focusing either on a topic related to the country in which you spent your year abroad or on a research question addressing issues which concern you.

Landscapes of the Future I and II What is the terrain of the world we're moving into and what does it demand? Through the preceding three years, the Liberal Arts degree has worked to provide you with a multidisciplinary perspective on the past and the present. In the final year, students come together to think of how that knowledge can be projected into the future. The module covers questions of environmental challenges and responses; politics, the state and the meaning of democracy; the potentialities of scientific development; the necessity of innovation and intervention; and the imagining of crises and responses to these. The module provides a forum for discussing and preparing students' individual research projects.

You also take 60 credits from a select range of options to reflect personal interest and future ambition.

Year abroad

All students spend the year between Stages 2 and 3 studying or working abroad. The University has strong links with top-ranking continental European institutions, as well as with institutions in the USA, Canada, China and Japan. It may also be possible to spend the year on a work placement.

Please see the Go abroad webpages for further details.