Queen's University Belfast

Source: https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/liberal-arts-mlibarts-y300/ Parent: https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/

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Undergraduate 2027

Undergraduate 2025

MLibArts | Undergraduate

Liberal Arts

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Entry year : Academic Year 2027/28

Entry requirements : AAA

Attendance : 4 years (Full-time) \

UCAS Code : Y300

Overview
Course content
Modules
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Careers
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Liberal Arts at Queen's is a unique, exciting and challenging programme that allows students to immerse themselves in subjects that are vital to understanding our twenty-first- century world. Through innovative disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary study, students explore a range of contemporary issues within a programme which allows them the flexibility to pursue a discipline specialism or broader, thematic interests that are cross-disciplinary in nature.\ \ Taking advantage of the internationally-renowned expertise across the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, students explore different ways of approaching research, and consider various tools or sources that can be used to answer the pressing questions of their world in innovative ways. This might be through their discipline-specific training, or through blending the research approaches from multiple subjects to consider things in a new way. . \ \ A Liberal Arts student is curious about the world and about different ways of thinking. With our study abroad and work placement opportunities, in addition to Masters-level teaching in fourth year, this degree is built with flexibility and future success in mind.

Liberal Arts at Queen's builds on the strengths of the multiple disciplines of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty.

Course highlights

Global Opportunities

Students on the M.Liberal Arts programme benefit from a broad range of study-abroad and international placement opportunities, e.g. in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. The Year/Semester Abroad is a significant learning and employability enhancement opportunity. This feature of our degree programme gives students the opportunity for personal development, and further develops communication skills and intercultural awareness. The challenges of living abroad come to be a unique (and unforgettable) stage in their own personal development.

Students on a M.Liberal Arts languages pathway study or work abroad for 8 months or more in their third year. Students in Languages at Queen’s have specialised classes to prepare them for the Year Abroad, supported by members of the school. In addition to the benefits for oral competence, the residence provides a unique opportunity for immersion in the culture of their chosen country. \ Students not on a languages pathway study abroad for the second semester of their third year. In recent years, our students have taken placements in France, Spain, Canada, the United States, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

https://www.qub.ac.uk/Study/international-students/study-abroad/

Industry Links

We regularly consult and develop links with employers across Northern Ireland. Integrated into our Liberal Arts modules are opportunities to meet practitioners, for example from BBC NI, heritage organisations (Linen Hall Library, Ulster Museum, Hearth NI), and the charitable sector. Work placements can be organised in a range of places, tailored to a student’s individual degree specialism, and have included placements at Stormont, the Public Record Office Northern Ireland (PRONI), Linen Hall Library, Irish Film Institute, Score Draw Music, museums across Northern Ireland, and the civil service. In addition to our Liberal Arts modules, students are connected to industry through subject-specific modules, for example in Film and Broadcast Production.

Career Development

Students are offered opportunities to develop substantive knowledge and research skills through collaboration with Northern Ireland’s vibrant civil and community sector, through field trips, guest lectures, workshops, placements, research collaborations and volunteering opportunities.

In second year, students take a ‘Careers Placement’ module, working closely with QUB’s Careers Service experts in advance of their work placement.

World Class Facilities

Students benefit from research-led teaching and access to a range of world-class facilities, depending on their pathway.

The School of Arts, English and Languages is one of the largest and best equipped institutions in the UK working in the field of music and sound. Students have access to state-of-the-art audio resources including two dedicated computer suites, ten sound studios an equipment loan store and the world’s first Sonic Laboratory – a unique performance space capable of three-dimensional sound projection, all housed in the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC). Our Music Building was built at the same time as the main Queen's Lanyon Building. It was originally the Students' Union and Canteen.\ We have the beautiful Harty Room concert hall, The Old McMordie Hall teaching room, a large Lecture Room, smaller teaching rooms, a basement full of practice rooms, 2 recording studios and social spaces for students to meet.

For students interested in Drama and the performing arts, a lot of teaching happens in the Brian Friel Theatre, one of the best-equipped theatres in Belfast with a 120-seat studio theatre, rehearsal room, dressing rooms, green room and workshop. These are all housed in the Drama and Film Centre which also includes the Queen’s Film Theatre.

The McClay Library holds extensive collections relating to all subjects offered on the M.Liberal Arts programme, including History and Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, and English. Queen’s has built up a superb collection of books, manuscripts and periodicals over the past 160 years. It brings together wide-ranging library, computing and media services in a single location as well as offering study facilities suitable for quiet study and group work.

https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/BrianFrielTheatre/

Internationally Renowned Experts

On this programme you will be taught by academics who are internationally renowned experts at the top of their respective fields.

The Liberal Arts modules bring together academic expertise with industry leaders to really dig into how the knowledge built up on the programme can have ‘real world’ impacts.

As students on an undergraduate Masters, we encourage students to get involved in the multiple research centres which are pushing new boundaries at Queen’s. These include:\ • The Centre for Sustainability, Equality, and Climate Action\ • The Centre for Public History\ • The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice\ • The Institute of Irish Studies\ • The Institute of Cognition and Culture

Student Experience

From Personal Tutors to peer mentoring, we work closely with students to ensure they are supported at every stage of their degree. Due to the core module at each Liberal Arts stage, our students tend to be closely-knit and know their Liberal Arts lecturers well. This ensures that, while they embark on different pathways in various Schools and subjects, they always have an academic contact to support their university career. We were delighted that in 2025, our graduating students gave us 100% for Student Satisfaction!\ \ With Degree-Plus, students have the opportunity to burnish their academic achievements with employment-facing placements and projects.\ \ A thriving cultural scene organised by our undergraduate and postgraduate communities, from the English Society and Poetry Proper to the Lifeboat and the Yellow Nib, makes studying at Queen's a unique proposition.\ \ Students can work with our visiting Fulbright Scholars, leading US academics who spend a semester at Queen's each year; and, through the Heaney Centre, world-renowned and award-winning creative practitioners in the fields of poetry, prose and scriptwriting join us each year as Fellows of the Centre.

With Degree-Plus, students have the opportunity to burnish their academic achievements with employment- facing placements and projects.

A thriving cultural scene organised by our undergraduate and postgraduate communities, including the newly-organised (by our students) Liberal Arts Society. The wider cultural scene, including the Lifeboat and the Yellow Nib, makes studying at Queen's a unique proposition. Due to the multi-/interdisciplinary nature of their studies, Liberal Arts students have the opportunity to engage with it all!

The Global Opportunities team at QUB also means that Liberal Arts students can supplement their studies through QUB-subsidised summer schools. Two of our students headed to Utrecht for a fortnight learning about art history in 2024!

'When I left school after my A-Levels, I had a lot of interests and I wasn't ready to settle on just one to pursue at university level. Studying Liberal Arts at Queens allowed me to explore a wide range of disciplines within the Arts, Humanities and Languages so that I could pick a major I was really passionate about, whilst also studying a selection of other, interconnected classes from across the schools to create a fully customisable degree. \ \ The course pushed me to change my way of thinking, as being allowed to take different classes in different fields introduced me to lots of new ideas, and of course, lots of new people thinking them. On top of this, sharing a class with my fellow Liberal Arts students, all of whom were also studying a plethora of subjects in their own right, only added to this mixture of ideas and broadened my horizons. What's more, I left university after four years with an integrated Masters Degree! Looking back, I know I made the right choice in picking Liberal Arts at Queens.'\ \ Jill Clerkin, M.Liberal Arts and French graduate 2022

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[##### Your Future Career

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Course location

Arts, English and Languages

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