Liberal Arts with Comparative Literature

Liberal arts with comparative literature is a degree that offers a fresh approach to developing academic skills within the arts and humanities, featuring a flexible and interdisciplinary degree structure that allows you to study more than one subject in a meaningful and connected way, and to build the skills needed to navigate a complex and changing world. Liberal arts engages with major intellectual traditions and global issues, including those related to the environment and social justice, while developing an awareness of the importance of civic engagement and the responsibility that comes with education. Comparative literature adds a distinctive analytical lens, examining how literature functions across languages, cultures, and historical periods, asking what happens when you read works from different traditions alongside each other and what new understandings become possible through that comparative act.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time programme is structured to give you breadth and depth across the humanities, with the flexibility to develop genuine expertise in the areas that matter most to you. You will develop close reading skills, critical analysis, cultural understanding, and the ability to construct well-evidenced arguments across diverse texts and traditions, engaging with canonical and non-canonical literature, translation, world literature, and the theoretical frameworks that comparative study draws on.

With a typical entry tariff of 200 UCAS points, this is a highly competitive programme at one of the UK's leading research universities. Liberal arts with comparative literature graduates bring skills in critical thinking, cultural analysis, clear writing, and the ability to engage with complexity and ambiguity that are valued across many professional fields. Careers include publishing, journalism, education, the civil service, arts and cultural management, international organisations, policy research, law, and many analytical and communicative roles.

Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in literature, cultural studies, creative writing, or a related discipline.