Education
Interdisciplinary programmes
The School of Liberal Arts offers four broadly oriented Bachelor's degree programmes: Taal- en cultuurstudies (TCS) and Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), Kunstmatige intelligentie (KI) and Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). Between them, every year these programmes attract around 600 students who have wide interests and a high degree of civic engagement. These characteristics also make them willing and able to take the responsibility for designing their own degree programme. Thanks to the high standards set by both programmes in terms of independence and creativity, our students are well equipped to embark on successful careers in academia, the private sector, in NGOs and the civil service.
Please note: although the liberal arts honors college at Utrecht University College follows the some interdisciplinary philosophy in her education, this Bachelor is given independent from the School of Liberal Arts.
Taal- en cultuurstudies
TCS was launched in 1985, making it the oldest broad-based humanities degree programme in the Netherlands. Students combine courses from the wider field of the humanities, gaining knowledge of languages, media, history and art. Throughout the programme attention is paid to the social relevance of theoretical insights from language and cultural studies. Students also familiarise themselves with different career perspectives, for example through research internships and by taking compulsory courses on practical applications of the humanities.
Liberal Arts and Sciences
In the Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) degree programme, launched in 2004, students are able to combine courses from the arts, sciences and social sciences. The programme has a strong interdisciplinary character: students learn to compare insights from a range of fields and to integrate them to produce a more comprehensive answer to a complex question.
Kunstmatige intelligentie
The KI programme started in Utrecht in 1989, then called Cognitive Artificial Intelligence, making it the oldest KI programme in the Netherlands. Students combine insights from different disciplines such as computer science, logic, psychology, philosophy and linguistics. They study and model intelligent behavior, and learn to apply a multitude of techniques from computer science, mathematics and logic to mimic intelligent behavior. They also learn to reflect on our thinking, and to apply such psychological and philosophical insights to their own studies.
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Since 2018, the English-language PPE programme has offered a small-scale, intensive programme for motivated and committed students who are concerned with complex social and political challenges. The premise of the programme is that addressing such challenges requires stepping across disciplinary, national and cultural boundaries. Students learn about politics and economics, and also learn to think critically about the future of political and economic institutions from philosophical reflection and a historical perspective.