Liberal Arts (with Placement Year)

Defy traditional subject boundaries with our vibrant Liberal Arts degree
Explore countless connections across the humanities with our hands-on Liberal Arts degree. You will inspect various disciplinary approaches while covering topics like:

• Revolutions and rebellions
• World religions
• Digital production
• Creative writing
• Journalism and the media
• Political communication

Our BA Liberal Arts degree gives you a broad, interdisciplinary foundation while allowing you to specialise in the areas that excite you most. Major pathways on our BA Liberal Arts degree include:

• Creative writing
• English
• Film and screen media
• History
• Political science
• Theology

Real-world experience
During your Liberal Arts degree, you can engage in real-world public presentations and creative projects through mediums like:

• Film and tv
• Magazines
• Podcasts.

Learn in the capital
Our campus is located in the green and picturesque London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames, so as a BA Liberal Arts student, you’ll have access to the capital's diverse creative, cultural, historical, and political scenes. You could explore places like:

• The British Library
• Shakespeare’s Globe
• The Tate Modern
• Houses of Parliament

We’ll also take you on exciting field trips to several cultural institutions as part of your degree, including:

• National Theatre
• Museum of London
• The Imperial War Museum

A campus with a unique creative history
Our campus is attached to Strawberry Hill House. Here, renowned gothic writer, Horace Walpole, designed and lived to inspire his work. As a result, your degree will be a fully immersive and geographically distinct learning experience.

Hear from our students
Shekinah, Liberal Arts student – “As a liberal arts student at St Mary’s, I can study and choose to major in, history, English, film, creative writing, and theology — all subjects that I love.”

Paid work placements
You can complete a paid work placement to build your skills and network. You can work in:

• Theatres
• Concert halls
• Museums
• Heritage sites
• Publishing houses
• Charities

Why St Mary’s?
You will gain skills and support to make a positive impact – for yourself and for others – through high-quality teaching, real-world experience, and a community that lifts each other up. Our campus is a London oasis – blending city energy with open green spaces to think, connect, and grow.

About the Placement Year
A placement year enables you to undertake a year of experience in an organisation between your second and final year.

It will enable you to:

• apply the knowledge and skills you gain from your course in a work setting

• build your commercial awareness and insights into organisations and industries you might want to work in

• develop your professional skills through company training, networking skills and confidence in the workplace

• get some great experience for future job applications or even land a graduate job.

Support from St Mary’s every step of the way
Securing a placement can really help you develop your job search skills and the Employability Service placement and Careers Teams can support you to find and apply for available opportunities.

Please note: in the event that you cannot secure a placement you will be able to transfer onto the three year version of your degree programme.

There are a large range of assessment strategies available to the students who will be expected not just to develop their skills as academic writers through formal essay, but as charismatic communicators through public presentation, group problem solvers through project work and creative artists through media outputs, film, podcast and/or performance.