Liberal Arts with Integrated Foundation Year

BA Liberal Arts (with Integrated Foundation Year)

This course is available to Home (UK) students and International students 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.

We sometimes make changes to our courses to improve your experience. If this happens, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

Course Modules

Core Modules

Foundation Year

• Cultures of Thinking

• Culture and Memory

• Society on Screen

• Textual Cultures

• Research Project and Reflection

Year 1

• Critical and Cultural Encounters

Year 2

• Power, Society and Cultural Practice

Year 3

• All modules are optional

Optional Modules

For more information on optional modules, please see the list here: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/undergraduate/liberal-arts/liberal-arts-with-integrated-foundation-year/

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/undergraduate/liberal-arts/liberal-arts-with-integrated-foundation-year/

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.