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  • Arts and Humanities (BA) (Part-time)
  • 2012/2013 entry
  • Contact us
  • Assessment

    • A combination of essays, unseen and predisclosed examinations, and practical exercises designed to evaluate the abilities and writing skills required in the twenty-first-century workplace, and a final-year project of 6000–8000 words.

  • Attendance
      • Two evenings a week.
      • October–June.
  • Duration
      • Four years part-time.
  • Entry requirements
      • Over 21: no formal qualifications required. Admission is based on an interview and you may also be asked to complete a written task.
      • Under 21: normally BBB at A-level or equivalent, although we may waive these formal entry requirements and make our own assessment of your skills and knowledge.
      • Credits for earlier studies are available, and there are progression agreements for a number of validated Birkbeck Certificate of Higher Education programmes.
  • Fees and funding
  • Location
      • Central London.
  • Teaching

    • Some modules are lecture-based (or a mixture of lectures and discussion-based workshops); others are primarily seminar-based (lecturer-led discussions with other students). Some modules may involve the screening of films or slide presentations.



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Arts and Humanities (BA) (Part-time) - 2012/2013 entry

Would you like to study literature, art, film and media, theatre studies and cultural studies within a single degree? You can do just that, by designing your own programme of study with expert guidance from our specialists. This course gives you the flexibility to pursue multidisciplinary interests and then specialise in areas that you find interesting. Examine culture through literary and philosophical texts, art and cinema, the mass media and digital technologies.

This course is also available for full-time evening study.

  • Course structure

    • Year 1

      Three introductory modules, which provide a conceptual and skills ‘toolbox’ useful for subsequent study:

      • Module 1: The Production of the Human: study key works and theoretical frameworks which have helped to shape our contemporary understanding of the 'human being'; from Machiavelli to Michel Foucault, from Renaissance Humanism to digital culture and contemporary genetics.
      • Module 2: Introduction to Methods in Cultural Study: a study skills module combining tutor-led study skills with independent and peer-based learning. Includes an introduction to generic and specific study skills, from how to identify and comment on key texts on a specific question to how to analyse a film or an advertisement; to how to put together an exhibition of objects that represent a question or theme in the arts and humanities. It is an essential and creative, playful and thorough basis for undertaking interdisciplinary study.
      • Module 3: a Level 4 option module of your choice.

      Year 2

      Module 1: Level 4 option module
      Module 2: Connecting the Arts (Level 5)
      Module 3: Level 5 option module chosen from a range from the humanities and across the School of Arts, which may include:

      Years 3 and 4

      Select five modules from a list of options, which may include:

      • Avant-Garde Revolt and Reaction
      • Caribbean Literature
      • Contemporary Germany: Memory, Politics and Institutions
      • Contemporary US Fiction
      • Cosmopolitan Identities and Migrations
      • Leaving the Twentieth Century: Situationist and Other Critiques of Everyday Life
      • Literature and Cultural Identity
      • Meaning and Power: Sites of Damage and Repair in the Age of Total Mobilisation
      • Media, Technology and Everyday Life
      • Music and Image: Art and Music in the Twentieth Century
      • Narratives of the Body
      • Poetry and Justice in the Postcolonial Context
      • Post-Colonial Literature
      • The Beat Generation and Post-War America
      • The Cultural Production of Space  
      • The Photographic
      • Tragedy and Philosophy
      • World Cinema.

      In Year 4 you will write your Final Year Project, an extended piece of supervised research on a topic of your choice (6000–8000 words).

      For further details of theatre studies modules, see BA Theatre Studies and Humanities.

      Find out more about this programme in our departmental handbooks: Year 1 and Years 2–4.

  • Study resources
  • Further study opportunities
  • Careers information

    • Graduates go on to careers in broadcast media, journal and newspaper editorial work, teaching, cultural policy and consultancy, cultural administration, cultural industries such as museums and other arts-oriented organisations, and government and local government roles requiring leadership in the cultural and arts sectors.

    • To speak to an independent careers advisor, booking onto one of our Future Focus — Careers Workshops
  • Apply now