Arts and Humanities

Arts and humanities degrees take as their subject the full breadth of human creative and intellectual production, from literature, philosophy, and history to art, music, and cultural studies. They develop the ability to read closely, argue carefully, and understand human experience in its historical and cultural complexity, capacities that are valuable across an enormous range of professional and intellectual contexts. A cross-disciplinary arts and humanities degree takes this breadth seriously, allowing students to range across subjects and make connections that single-discipline programmes might not.

At Birkbeck College, this part-time BA Arts and Humanities is a flexible, cross-disciplinary degree that puts the arts and humanities at the heart of your engagement with contemporary global challenges. The programme recognises that the most pressing questions of our time, about identity, justice, the environment, politics, and technology, require the kinds of interpretive depth and critical thinking that humanities education develops. You will have the freedom to move across subjects and to shape a degree that reflects your particular intellectual interests and professional ambitions, with an emphasis throughout on how the skills and perspectives you develop can be applied across a wide range of careers.

Birkbeck's distinctive ethos as an evening university means you will study alongside students from diverse backgrounds, bringing a rich variety of experience to discussions.

Arts and humanities graduates work in extraordinary breadth of fields: education, law, the civil service, journalism, publishing, the cultural sector, marketing, communications, consulting, and public policy. The combination of critical thinking, close reading, and clear writing that the degree develops is valued by employers across sectors who want graduates capable of engaging with complex information and communicating well. Postgraduate study in any humanities discipline, or in professional fields such as law, journalism, or education, is a natural continuation.