Liberal Arts (Placement Year)

BA Hons

  • UCAS code Y002
  • Entry year 2027
  • A level requirements AAB
  • Duration Full time 4 years
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We welcome applications from the United States of America

We've put together information and resources to guide your application journey as a student from the United States of America.

Overview

Top reasons to study with us

  • Apply creative solutions to real life challenges

  • Collaborate with local organisations on live briefs

  • Discover a wide range of humanities, arts and social science approaches and techniques

Studying Liberal Arts at Lancaster offers you the opportunity to expand your mind and become a creative and critical thinker. You will develop a holistic view of global issues and engage with local communities, tackle societal challenges, and explore influential ideas.

By exploring ideas from a range of arts, humanities and social science subjects, you will develop a sophisticated understanding of the key issues facing humanity, hone your problem-solving skills and practice innovative thinking. Prepare to become a versatile, global citizen ready to make a meaningful impact in an ever-changing world.

Why Lancaster?

  • Think big and think differently: Develop your creative and critical thinking through dynamic, interdisciplinary approaches in humanities, arts, design and social sciences
  • Unleash your creativity: Choose innovative assessments that develop your interests and skills, from producing a podcast to crafting a case study or creating a performance piece
  • Make a real-world impact: Collaborate with local communities to design and deliver meaningful, hands-on projects that make a difference
  • Build a future-ready skill set: Apply your learning in practical, professional settings to master problem-solving, negotiation, communication, and empathy
  • Turn learning into action: Graduate with experiences and skills that demonstrate your ability to innovate, connect, and lead in a rapidly changing world
  • Embark on an adventure: Shape your own learning journey by choosing to audit a range of modules from across the humanities, arts, and social sciences

Apply your ideas to current issues

Many challenges we face today are complex and require input from a range of disciplines and perspectives. You will develop a holistic understanding of real-world issues and learn how to solve problems drawing on a range of methodologies and approaches from across the Arts and Humanities.

Topics could include the environment and climate change, objectivity and subjectivity in information, relationships between human and non-human, as well as our digital presents and futures. As we explore different topics, we will draw on principles from Fine Art to Politics, from English Literature to Cultural Studies and from History to Philosophy. You will encounter big thinkers, game-changing ideas, and influential theories that shape the way we understand the world, challenge conventional thinking, and inspire innovation across various fields.

You will learn to analyse, critique and question relationships between different perspectives.

You will also learn how to relate cultural artefacts such as paintings, literature, buildings and iconic figures to the contexts of their production and reception and ask how these principles have impact in the real world. For example, how do legacies of colonialism impact local communities?

Learn through real-world encounters

We emphasise the importance of ‘place’ in our teaching, encouraging you to engage with local communities within their own unique locations on their own terms. A key part of the course is connecting your studies to the real world, applying what you have learned to current social issues to have a positive effect.

You will develop awareness of and engagement with community partners such as councils, charities, arts and heritage groups, health care partners and businesses; local community settings may also include Lancaster Castle, Preston Archives, the Gregson Community centre or the proposed Eden Project in Morecambe.

As you progress through the course, you will work collaboratively on live briefs aiming to produce creative solutions to social challenges set in a range of local contexts . Through these immersive experiences and collaborative projects, you will address pressing societal challenges. You will learn how to apply your knowledge and skills in professional contexts preparing you for your future career and empowering you, as a graduate to make a difference in the world.

New ways of thinking. New ways of assessment.

As you experience alternative ways of thinking and develop your awareness of the relationship between global issues and local realities, your sensitivity to cultural diversity will increase.

You will become a more flexible, lateral, and creative thinker. Through human interactions you will develop negotiation skills grounded in empathy and insight. We believe that it’s not about looking for the right answers but finding the right questions to ask.

An innovative approach to study requires alternatives to traditional assessment methods. On some modules you will have creative choice over the kind of work you submit for assessment. For example, you might deliver a podcast, present a theatre performance, create a case-study or make a piece of art!

With the knowledge, skills and experiences you acquire at Lancaster, you can graduate with ambition and confidence that you will bring real value to whatever you choose to do.

Your Placement Year

Sometimes known as a year in industry, your placement year will take place between your second and final year of study and this will extend your degree to four years.

Placements and Internships

Hear from students and employers on how Lancaster University could support you to gain real-world experience and bolster your CV with a placement or internship as part of your degree.

A student working on a piece of stained glass.

A placement year is an excellent way to...

  • try out a role that you may be interested in as a career path
  • start to build your professional network (some placement students are offered permanent roles to return to after they graduate)
  • develop skills, knowledge and experience to put you ahead of the field when you graduate
Three students sitting around a laptop.

You'll spend your third year...

in a graduate-level position, where you’ll work for between nine and twelve months in the type of role that you might be considering for after you graduate. A very wide range of companies and organisations offer placements across all sectors.

As a full-time employee, you’ll have a job description with specific responsibilities and opportunities to access training and development, the same as other employees.

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Our Careers and Placements Team...

will help you to search and compete for a suitable placement with expert advice and resources, such as creating an effective CV, and tips for applications and interviews.

You will still be a Lancaster University student during your placement and we’ll keep in touch to check how you are getting on.

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The university will...

use all reasonable effort to support you to find a suitable placement for your studies. While a placement role may not be available in a field or organisation that is directly related to your academic studies or career aspirations, all offer valuable experience of working at a graduate level and gaining a range of professional skills.

If you are unsuccessful in securing a suitable placement for your third year, you will be able to transfer to the equivalent non-placement degree scheme and continue with your studies at Lancaster, finishing your degree after your third year.

Careers

Creative and critical thinking skills are in high demand in the workplace as is the ability to communicate ideas at every level. A skilled analyst able to see all sides of an argument, you will be a persuasive negotiator while remaining open to the ideas of others. Your adaptability and flexibility, evidenced throughout your degree, will be an asset in today’s rapidly changing and sometimes challenging work environment.

The practical elements of this course will give you demonstrable experience of real-life situations where you have organised and managed workloads and collaborated as part of a team. You will have developed sensitivity to and tolerance of others along with an ability to make ethical and informed decisions.

Future careers could include:

  • Broadcasting
  • Radio or TV work
  • Barrister
  • Public relations manager
  • Teacher
  • Social or community worker
  • Manager or team leader in charitable sector
  • Museum or gallery curator
  • Archivist
  • Politics researcher
  • Documentary maker
  • Journalist
  • Marketing or social media specialist
  • Manager or team leader in an Arts organisation or the Heritage Industry
  • Social responsibility manager

We have selected a few of the extremely wide range of potential future career possibilities to describe in a little more detail how the Liberal Arts course will prepare you with the skills and experience to flourish in these exciting futures.

Journalism, Digital Content, and Public Affairs Communications

The world does not need more content. It needs better sense-making. Lancaster Liberal Arts will help you build the craft behind communication that people will actually trust; analysis, cultural literacy, and a feel for how narratives will work in the wild. We will explore how “facts” travel, how assumptions get built into systems, and how public debates are shaped. Then you will make things: podcasts, case studies, creative outputs. You will graduate with a portfolio, not just opinions. This will be ideal preparation for journalism, digital content, and public affairs roles.

Policy Adviser or Public Policy Officer

If you want to shape policy, you will need more than opinions, you will need judgement. In Lancaster’s Liberal Arts degree, we will train you to work with complexity: you will hold competing perspectives, test claims, and translate messy realities into clear options. We will build your confidence writing for decision-makers, speaking to stakeholders, and making sense of evidence that does not neatly agree with itself. Through place-based projects and live briefs, we will help you practise the real work of public change: framing problems well, negotiating constraints, and proposing action that will stand up in the room.

Arts, Heritage and Cultural Project Management

Cultural work is never only about culture. It is about audiences, institutions, place, politics, and delivery. Lancaster’s Liberal Arts degree will help you connect artefacts to context, and context to action. You will learn to interpret cultural forms, understand public value, and design experiences that will engage real communities rather than imaginary “users”. Through live briefs and place-based learning, we will build practical project skills: planning, collaboration, stakeholder management, and communicating purpose. If you want a career producing exhibitions, festivals, heritage programmes or cultural partnerships, this will be a serious foundation.

Charity / NGO Programme Officer / Community Engagement Lead

Impactful community work is not just “being nice”. It is about organising, listening, negotiating, and delivering. At Lancaster, we will place you in contexts where social value will be made (and sometimes lost): communities, charities, public services and local partners. You will learn how to work with lived experience respectfully, turn insight into practical programmes, and manage tensions that will come with limited resources and high stakes. Through collaborative, real-world projects, we will help you produce the evidence employers will want most: credibility, coordination, and the ability to move from intention to outcomes.

Marketing, Brand and Public Relations

Branding is not decoration; it is meaning under pressure. Lancaster’s Liberal Arts will build the capabilities that sit underneath effective marketing and PR: cultural insight, persuasive writing, ethical judgement, and an ability to read the room, socially and strategically. You will learn how people will interpret messages, why narratives stick, and how context can change everything. Creative assessments will become portfolio pieces; live projects will build stakeholder skills and delivery discipline. The result will not be just “communication”, it will be strategic communication: grounded, credible, and adaptable across industries and fast-moving roles.

Further Studies

This course also prepares for further study at Postgraduate level; for instance, you could go on to the Global Leadership MAs in the School of Global Affairs:

MA Sustainability and Global Environmental Futures

MA Global Medical and Health Humanities

Alternatively, you could study postgraduate courses across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities, arts, social sciences and beyond.

Careers and employability support

Our degrees open up an extremely wide array of career pathways in businesses and organisations, large and small, in the UK and overseas.

We run a paid internship scheme specifically for our arts, humanities and social sciences students, supported by a specialist Employability Team. The team offer individual consultations and tailored application guidance, as well as careers events, development opportunities, and resources.

Whether you have a clear idea of your potential career path or need some help considering the options, our friendly team is on hand.

Lancaster is unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award which recognises activities such as work experience, community engagement or volunteering and social development. A valuable addition to your CV!

Find out more about Lancaster’s careers events, extensive resources and personal support for Careers and Employability.

Careers

Find out about some of the careers our alumni have entered into after graduation.

Entry requirements

These are the typical grades that you will need to study this course. This section will tell you whether you need qualifications in specific subjects, what our English language requirements are, and if there are any extra requirements such as attending an interview or submitting a portfolio.

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Help from our Admissions team

If you are thinking of applying to Lancaster and you would like to ask us a question, complete our enquiry form and one of the team will get back to you.

We also have more details on our website about:

International foundation programmes

Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored foundation pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University degrees. Visit the INTO Lancaster University website for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.

Contextual admissions

Contextual admissions could help you gain a place at university if you have faced additional challenges during your education which might have impacted your results. Visit our contextual admissions page to find out about how this works and whether you could be eligible.

Course structure

Detailed module information for this undergraduate programme will follow shortly. However, if you have any questions please contact the department.

Fees and funding

We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2027/28 entry fees have not yet been set.

Fees and funding information

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Scholarships and bursaries

You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.

You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status:

Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.

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We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.

Browse Lancaster University's scholarships and bursaries.

Important information

The information on this site relates primarily to the stated entry year and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.

The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.

More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.

Our Students’ Charter

We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our  Charter and student policies.

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