BA Global Liberal Arts

In Global Liberal Arts students learn how to approach academic topics across disciplinary boundaries, with the aim of producing rounded and critical global citizens. Each year involves modules from 4 tracks: Skills, Global, Regional, Language and Literature and Arts, where modules can be taken throughout the School in combinations unparalleled on any other programme here or elsewhere from social sciences to humanities. The programme is situated in the School of History, Religions and Philosophies, some of its core modules are shared between these disciplines. Year 1: The Introduction to Global Liberal Arts introduces the student to the idea of a liberal arts education and what it means in a new decentred global context, practices basic research skills, and gives guidance in the design of individual programme journeys; a further compulsory module teaches the histories of academic disciplines at SOAS and beyond as they evolved in the context of empire and colonialism; Year 2: Philosophy module introducing the students to the practice of abstract thinking. Year 3: Dissertation on a subject of the student’s choosing which combines documentary and abstract approaches to knowledge production in a way that will make sense to stakeholders in the non-academic world. The study of languages is encouraged throughout, but literature and arts modules can be taken instead.

On the BA Global Liberal Arts programme, you will learn how to approach academic topics across disciplinary boundaries in the humanities.

By studying and learning in this way, you will become a critical global citizen who can disrupt the status quo and act as a force for progressive transformative change. SOAS’s BA Global Liberal Arts programme is homed in the School of History, Religions and Philosophies. Each year of study on this degree programme involves modules from 4 tracks: ‘Skills and Methods’, ‘Global’, ‘Regional’, and ‘Language’, which enable you to take modules from across the entirety of SOAS.

Our BA Global Liberal Arts programme provides you with a range of module combinations unparalleled on any other UK higher education undergraduate degree in the social sciences and the humanities.

Why study BA Global Liberal Arts at SOAS?

• SOAS is ranked 15th in the UK for Arts and Humanities (QS World University Rankings 2023)
• SOAS is ranked 6th in the UK for employment outcomes (QS World University Rankings 2023)
• Our average 20/21 Graduate Outcome Departmental score is 82.85% (HESA)
• We eliminated racialised awarding gaps at undergraduate level

With specialised historical knowledge, an understanding of cultural sensibilities and skills in research and analysis, graduates from the Department of History are well respected by employers across private and public sectors.

Recent graduates have been hired by:

• Al Jazeera
• Amnesty International
• Bank of England
• BBC
• Blackstock PR
• Bonhams
• British Council
• British Library
• Dataminr
• Ernst and Young
• Goldman Sachs
• Google
• HSBC
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• KPMG
• Middle East Consultancy Services
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cyprus
• Natural History Museum
• Publicis Media
• UNESCO
• United Nations Development Programme

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