Course options
Key information
Duration: 4 years full time
UCAS code: Y00F
Institution code: R72
Campus: Egham
The course
BA Liberal Arts (with Integrated Foundation Year)
This course is available to Home (UK) students and students from the EU who meet the English Language requirements.
Our Integrated Foundation Year for Arts and Humanities is a thorough, skills-building course that will give you everything you need to start your study of BA Liberal Arts with confidence.
Arts and Humanities subjects, like Liberal Arts, provide key ways of understanding our complex world, its histories, and current debates facing contemporary society. Identity, political and social conflict, our interaction with new digital and genetic technologies, our stewardship of the environment are all issues where the voice of creative and critical thinking are key. Literary texts, films, plays and digital games offer important ways in which societies have debated - and continue to represent - their values and their futures.
Our Foundation Year sets you up so you’re ready to explore those debates and issues, providing you with opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding of how to approach studying the humanities, including your chosen degree subject. Learning from friendly, expert tutors, you’ll explore modules designed to give you a solid start to your study of arts and humanities subjects, helping you to grow critical skills to explore a range of literary, visual, and cultural forms, including plays, films, and digital media.
Once you have completed your Foundation year, you will normally progress onto the full degree course, BA Liberal Arts. There may also be flexibility to move onto a degree in another department (see end of section, below).
A Liberal Arts degree is ideal for creative and inquisitive individuals who have a wide range of interests. Choosing to take this highly-prized yet rarely available degree at Royal Holloway will provide you with the opportunity to create a bespoke course that is perfectly aligned to your individual interests and passions. Liberal Arts involves an internationally-recognised approach to study that will prepare you for life in our rapidly changing world. Multifaceted, diverse and adaptable graduates are increasingly sought by employers looking for people able to respond quickly and effectively to shifting needs and opportunities.
This degree is truly interdisciplinary and will allow you to have adopt either a concentrated or a broad focus in your studies, as you choose from a vast range of subjects available across the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Core modules in years 1 and 2 will enable you to connect with your fellow Liberal Arts students and provide you with a strong foundation upon which to base your chosen studies, and you will be prompted to think about how to bring different disciplines into conversation with each other. In addition, you will study a Modern European language, either as a beginner or at an advanced level for at least the first year; after that you can choose whether to develop your language skills further throughout your degree. The languages available are French, German, Italian and Spanish.
You will be taught by internationally renowned experts in their fields and be fully supported by a Personal Tutor. This course has a strong emphasis on teamwork alongside individual development and will equip you with skills of critical thinking, creativity and adaptability.
On successful completion of your Foundation Year, you may be able to choose an alternative pathway which could include Single Honours, joint or minor degrees within the Humanities (Classics, Drama, History, English (except pathways with Creative Writing), Media Arts, Comparative Literature and Culture, Philosophy). If you'd like to do this, you may take your Foundation Year Department Based Project in one of the other departments in Humanities.
From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.
Course structure
Core Modules
Foundation Year
Term 1:
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Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Issues and Academic Skills provides the underpinning for the Integrated Foundation Year programme and is key to helping students achieve the requirements for entry into first year undergraduate study and transition effectively from school / college to HE.
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‘Cultures of Reading’ is an exciting re-evaluation of what it means to read critically, and for the purposes of academic study. From Homer to Audre Lorde, William Shakespeare to Maya Angelou, this course explores a diverse selection of source materials from various historical periods in order to challenge our perception of how we read, why we read, and what we read. Can you ‘read’ a body? How should we read history? How is meaning generated? The course will pay attention to historical and political contexts, introduce philosophical concepts, and explore how meaning changes when texts are employed and re-employed in differing forms and genres.
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This course will explore critical approaches to and analysis of a wide range of visual media, including (but not limited to) paintings, films and photography. It will highlight and hinge on relevant historical contexts, such as the evolution of the printed press (c19th) and digital media (late c20th) as well as the impact of social/economic history on the consumption and production of visual arts more broadly from the mid c18th – the present day. After focussing upon key genres, comparative readings and analyses form a key part of the course, you will be introduced to comparative considerations of topics such as the landscape and environment through to portraiture from Classical times to the age of Instagram.
Term 2:
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Issues and Academic Skills 2
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Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages, funerals and more. This module will introduce students to the study and close analysis of material culture (objects) and social practices (rituals, intangible heritage) and how these might interact. The module will explore the critical uses of ‘material culture’ and ‘ritual’ as terms and tools of analysis; examine objects and rituals from different periods (such as the printed book or hunting) and also how the body, the built environment, and spatial aesthetics, all exemplify social practices.
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‘Digital Cultures’ explores the intersection between the digital revolution of the past fifty years and the study of humanities in Higher Education, in order to consider the implications of this ‘encounter’ of the digital with the humanities. With the decline in public and private support for the humanities in full swing, this module questions whether the digital is a necessary ally to ensure that the humanities are continuing to communicate with, and adapt to, the needs of our contemporary, digitalised society. It will frame this ‘encounter’ by turning to moments in history where similar scientific advancements have reshaped the humanities.
Term 3:
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On this unit you’ll undertake a short, intensive course introducing key aspects of your chosen subject or discipline. The course will be assessed by Personal Development Plan (PDP) which is a structured and supported process undertaken to reflect upon your own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for your personal, educational and career development. Through structured tasks convened through a specially designed Moodle site, the PDP will guide you through a process of self-reflection, self-evaluation, and forward planning. As well as helping you to understand how you learn best, the PDP tasks will encourage you to conceive of and understand your subject learning in terms of transferable skills. Such knowledge will assist you in communicating your skills effectively in a non-HE setting and helps you with forward planning for life after the degree. Practical career planning will be an aspect of the process, with prompts around the value of work experience and the range of co- and extra-curricular activities and opportunities available to them during your course of study.
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The aim of the individual project is to enable you to engage in theoretical work on an agreed specific area relevant to your chosen subject. Topics will be proposed by supervisors from which you can state three (rank ordered) preferences or you may propose your own topic subject to agreement. The course will culminate with a joint Poster Presentation with all students on the Foundation Year.
Year 1
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This module is the core introduction to the Liberal Arts degree. You will focus on the unifying theme of 'encounters', and engage with some of the distinctive qualities of the course. It will introduce them to some of the ways in which cultures have developed through historical, philosophical and creative 'encounters', dialogue, tension and movement. Core teaching will be delivered collaboratively by tutors from a number of different departments. Through the in-depth study of selected case studies you will begin to appreciate the value in the comparative and interdisciplinary approach allowed by the Liberal Arts programme, and develop some of the key skills in analytical and critical thinking that will be essential to your studies.
Year 2
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This module takes the theme, 'Power, Society and Cultural Practice'', and examines it from a number of multidisciplinary and multimedia perspectives. It is designed to build on the first year module for Liberal Arts ('Cultural Encounters'). It encourages students to refine the approaches developed in that module, and to develop further their critical and creative approaches and practices in a comparative manner. The module places a particular emphasis on cultural practices across a range of media and will enable students to perceive the connections between ostensibly disparate forms of communication and discourses.
Year 3
- All modules are optional
Optional Modules
For more information on optional modules, please see the list here.
Teaching & assessment
In your Foundation Year, teaching methods include a mixture of lectures, seminars, workshops, individual tutorials, and supervisory sessions. Outside of the classroom you’ll undertake guided independent reading and study. You will also be assigned a Personal Tutor, who’ll be with you for the duration of your degree, and will have regular scheduled sessions to support learning and the development of study skills. Assessments are varied; quizzes, short written exercises, essays, examinations, poster preparation and presentation, blog/vlogs, short digital films, dissertations and personal development plans. In addition the Foundation Year offers a full range of skills-based training and also the opportunity to take a micro-placement to enhance your employability.
Once you progress onto your full degree course:
- The course has a modular structure. You will take 120 credits’ worth of modules each year.
- You will take the equivalent of four units each year. These will be drawn from a variety of departments, and so the teaching and assessment methods will vary widely, depending upon your own choices.
- In most cases, you will be taught by a mixture of lectures, seminars, and small group tutorials.
- In all these cases, your learning will be informed by your own independent research.
- You will also have access to your instructors for more specific advice about courses.
- Assessment methods will include essays, reports, oral presentations, texts, projects, and examinations.
- You will also take a study skills module during your first year, designed to equip you with and enhance the writing skills you will need to be successful in your degree. This module does not count towards your final degree award but you are required to pass it to progress to your second year.
In your final year, you will write a dissertation, a long essay based on your own, independent research, which will be up to 8,000 words in length.
Entry requirements
A Levels: CCC
Required subjects:
- At least five GCSEs at grade A*-C or 9-4 including English and Mathematics.
T-levels
We accept T-levels for admission to our undergraduate courses, with the following grades regarded as equivalent to our standard A-level requirements:
- AAA* – Distinction (A* on the core and distinction in the occupational specialism)
- AAA – Distinction
- BBB – Merit
- CCC – Pass (C or above on the core)
- DDD – Pass (D or E on the core)
Where a course specifies subject-specific requirements at A-level, T-level applicants are likely to be asked to offer this A-level alongside their T-level studies.
Other UK and Ireland Qualifications
EU requirements
English language requirements
All teaching at Royal Holloway (apart from some language courses) is in English. You will therefore need to have good enough written and spoken English to cope with your studies right from the start.
The scores we require
- IELTS: 6.5 overall. Writing 7.0. No other subscore lower than 5.5.
- Pearson Test of English: 61 overall. Writing 69. No other subscore lower than 51.
- Trinity College London Integrated Skills in English (ISE): ISE III.
- Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) grade C.
Your future career
Employers increasingly seek to recruit people who are able to respond quickly and effectively to shifting business needs and market conditions, an ability that studying Liberal Arts can give you. Studying a wide range of areas at a high level demonstrates that you can be adaptable and flexible, in addition to equipping you with the creative, critical and analytical skills you would expect to gain from studying at a world-class university. You will develop an invaluable set of transferable skills, expert knowledge in a diverse range of fields, a broad contextual and international awareness, an understanding of the methods available both for tackling challenges in the workplace and communicating with different people in different ways.
On graduation you will be ready to pursue a career in a wide range if areas. Our award-winning careers service is there to guide you along the way so that you can identify the career path that will match your specific strengths and interests. Our careers advisors will also provide you with tailored support to achieve your goals.
Fees, funding & scholarships
Home (UK) students tuition fee per year*: £9,250
Eligible EU students tuition fee per year**: £23,800
Foundation year essential costs***: There are no single associated costs greater than £50 per item on this course.
How do I pay for it? Find out more about funding options, including loans, scholarships and bursaries. UK students who have already taken out a tuition fee loan for undergraduate study should check their eligibility for additional funding directly with the relevant awards body.
*The tuition fee for UK undergraduates is controlled by Government regulations. The fee for the academic year 2024/25 is £9,250 and is provided here as a guide. The fee for UK undergraduates starting in 2025/26 has not yet been set, but will be advertised here once confirmed.
** This figure is the fee for eligible EU students starting this degree in the academic year 2024/25, and is included as a guide only. The fee for eligible EU students starting this degree in the academic year 2025/26 has not yet been set, but will be advertised here once confirmed.
Royal Holloway reserves the right to increase tuition fees annually for overseas fee-paying students. Please be aware that tuition fees can rise during your degree. The upper limit of any such annual rise has not yet been set for courses starting in 2025/26 but will be advertised here once confirmed. For further information see fees and funding and the terms and conditions.
***These estimated costs relate to studying this particular degree at Royal Holloway during the 2024/25 academic year, and are included as a guide. Costs, such as accommodation, food, books and other learning materials and printing etc., have not been included.
