COURSE OVERVIEW
*Subject to validation
- Explore histories and traditions of theatre and performance and discover the role of drama as a tool for social change
- Consider the important philosophical questions surrounding religion, the universe, human freedom and equality
- Personalise your degree by choosing from a diverse range of drama and liberal arts modules
- In your third year, create a small company to develop a major performance or an Applied Theatre or Theatre in Education project
Careers
Pre-approved for a Masters
If you study a Bachelor Honours degrees with us, you will be pre-approved to start a Masters degree at Winchester. To be eligible, you will need to apply by the end of March in the final year of your degree and meet the entry requirements of your chosen Masters degree.
*Subject to validation
'Validation' is the process by which the University approves a new programme to ensure that it provides a distinct, high-quality academic experience for students, that enables them to acquire the necessary academic knowledge, understanding, general and subject-specific skills required to pursue a graduate level career. In the unlikely event that a programme is not validated then we will do our best to find you an alternative programme within the University.ABOUT THIS COURSE
Suitable for applicants from:
UK, EU, World
Study abroad
Our BA (Hons) Liberal Arts and Drama course provides an opportunity for you to study abroad. For more information see our Study abroad section.
Learning and teaching
Our aim is to shape 'confident learners' by enabling you to develop the skills needed to excel in your studies here and as well as onto further studies or the employment market. You are taught primarily through a combination of lectures and seminars, allowing opportunities to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups. In addition to the formally scheduled contact time such as lectures and seminars etc.), you are encouraged to access academic support from staff within the course team, your personal tutor and the wide range of services available to you within the University.
Independent learning
Over the duration of your course, you will be expected to develop independent and critical learning, progressively building confidence and expertise through independent and collaborative research, problem-solving and analysis with the support of staff. You take responsibility for your own learning and are encouraged to make use of the wide range of available learning resources available.
Overall workload
Your overall workload consists of class contact hours, independent learning and assessment activity.
While your actual contact hours may depend on the optional modules you select, the following information gives an indication of how much time you will need to allocate to different activities at each level of the course.
Year 1 (Level 4): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
Teaching, learning and assessment: 252 hours
Independent learning: 948 hours
Year 2 (Level 5): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
Teaching, learning and assessment: 252 hours
Independent learning: 936 hours
Placement: 12 hours
Year 3 (Level 6): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
Teaching, learning and assessment: 252 hours
Independent learning: 948 hours
*Please note these are indicative hours for the course
Location
Taught elements of the course take place at King Alfred or at West Downs, Winchester.
Assessment
Our validated courses may adopt a range of means of assessing your learning. An indicative, and not necessarily comprehensive, list of assessment types you might encounter includes essays, portfolios, supervised independent work, presentations, written exams, or practical performances.
We ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve module learning outcomes. As such, where appropriate and necessary, students with recognised disabilities may have alternative assignments set that continue to test how successfully they have met the module's learning outcomes. Further details on assessment types used on the course you are interested in can be found by attending Open Day or contacting our teaching staff.
Percentage of the course assessed by coursework
The assessment balance between examination and coursework depends to some extent on the optional modules you choose. The approximate percentage of the course assessed by different assessment modes is as follows:
Year 1 (Level 4)*:
75% coursework
0% written exams
25% practical exams
Year 2 (Level 5)*:
73% coursework
0% written exams
27% practical exams
Year 3 (Level 6)*:
87% coursework
0% written exams
13% practical exams
*Please note these are indicative percentages and modes for the programme.
Feedback
We are committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to you on your academic progress and achievement in order to enable you to reflect on your progress and plan your academic and skills development effectively. You are also encouraged to seek additional feedback from your course tutors.
Further information
This programme is currently being validated. This is an internal process of ensuring our programmes offer students the best learning experience and can result in changes to the content of the course. For more information about our regulations for this course, please see our Academic Regulations, Policies and Procedures.
Entry requirements
96‐112 points
An A level A*‐C pass is required in one of the following: History, Archaeology, Classical Civilisation, History of Art, Economics, Politics, or English
A GCSE A*‐C or 9‐4 pass in English Language is required
If English is not your first language: Year 1/Level 4: IELTS 6.0 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in writing or equivalent
Course enquiries and applications
Telephone: +44 (0) 1962 827234
Send us a message
International students
If you are living outside of the UK or Europe, you can find out more about how to join this course by emailing our International Recruitment Team at International@winchester.ac.uk or calling +44 (0)1962 827023
Visit us
Explore our campus and find out more about studying at Winchester by visiting us at an Open Day.
Year 1 (Level 4)
Modules Credits
| Freedom is to Learn 1 | 15 |
|
The Freedom is to Learn modules are the mandatory modules that run through the three years of the degree. The title is suggestive of something carried by the term ‘modern’ in the name of the Programme. There will be much more to be said about this, but for now, remember it is important that you treat all the material you read in each of your MLA modules as relevant to all MLA modules. Think of year 1 as a whole year of learning, not necessarily divided into modules, and think of each year as part of the whole degree. In time we will reward essays which are able to bring material in from different modules. In this first of the compulsory modules we are looking at some aspects of the origin of liberal arts education in Antiquity. As we do, we will also asks a strange question: what is the meaning of ‘beginning’? This is related to a second question: what is learning? |
|
| Freedom is to Learn 2 | 15 |
|
This is the second mandatory module in year 1. Here we look at ancient and medieval cosmology, and at the role played by the idea of movement within metaphysics, physics and politics. We read important texts from Ancient Greece, most likely from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and the Sceptics. We look at some of the ideas associated with the ancient cosmos, including its being taken to and from Arabic and Judaic sources. We follow some of these ideas through western European cosmology and end the module by exploring motion and its relation to time, space and the construction of reality. |
|
| Harmonia mundi | 15 |
|
This module looks at the first principle of harmony in ancient and medieval liberal arts as it was seen to structure the ethical and metaphysical properties of the universe. We will think about this idea of harmony in relation to music, astronomy, maths, rhetoric and philosophy as well in the related areas of theology and politics. We will discuss whether we can hold to such principles of harmony today in the social, political and religious experience of dissonance and disharmony. Discussions will form part of an introduction to the Quadrivium and Trivium, the traditional subjects of Liberal Arts, upon which we can begin to think the nature of a modern liberal arts education. |
|
| Learning from the Renaissance | 15 |
|
This module introduces students to themes and personalities that were central to the period of Western history called the Renaissance. It will provide students with an historical overview of key events, as well as looking at the relation of the Renaissance to other historical periods. It will also look more deeply into selected ideas with a view to illustrating their significance both within the Renaissance and beyond. Central to the approach of the module will be to illustrate ways in which the Renaissance holds an ‘educational’ import both within itself and in terms of a legacy. Where appropriate, tutors will relate the material to both ancient and more modern issues and ideas. The module aims to increase student knowledge and understanding of the Renaissance but also to draw out its fundamental import for the notion of education in its widest sense. Many of the ideas introduced in this module will be returned to in years 2 and 3. |
|
| Theatre Histories | 30 |
|
This year-long module invites students to consider the contexts in which theatre is made today and has been made in the past. A number of texts will be explored in different contexts exploring different historical moments. The issue of the ephemerality of performance will be considered as textual and contextual materials and evidence are analysed. The key focus will be uncovering and understanding the complexity of the relationship between texts and contexts. The module will introduce debates in theatre historiography and offer methodologies for investigating theatre and its histories. A range of texts from different moments in theatre history and will be explored with the emphasis on performance in Britain. This module will encompass a breadth of theatre history whilst allowing for detailed case study work. There are two assessment points connected to this module:
|
|
| Making | 30 |
|
This module takes students on a year-long journey that introduces them to the process of making Performance in the current artistic environment. Building on understandings of performance creation and composition developed at pre-University level, students will be guided, largely through practical workshops accompanied by appropriate critical and practitioner readings, through exercises and formative tasks in inventing new work that take them into the realm of the unknown and that help them expand their capacity to create unique and original creative material for their academic age and experience. This module is a university-level primer in creative and compositional technique for the ensemble group and will engage students in a range of strategies for making work, and will require extensive in-class showings and critical feedback sessions in preparation for the assessment.
|
|
| Optional modules | |
|
Ancient 'Canonic' Tragedy |
|
Optional Credits
| Freedom is to Learn 1 | 15 |
|
The Freedom is to Learn modules are the mandatory modules that run through the three years of the degree. The title is suggestive of something carried by the term ‘modern’ in the name of the Programme. There will be much more to be said about this, but for now, remember it is important that you treat all the material you read in each of your MLA modules as relevant to all MLA modules. Think of year 1 as a whole year of learning, not necessarily divided into modules, and think of each year as part of the whole degree. In time we will reward essays which are able to bring material in from different modules. In this first of the compulsory modules we are looking at some aspects of the origin of liberal arts education in Antiquity. As we do, we will also asks a strange question: what is the meaning of ‘beginning’? This is related to a second question: what is learning? |
|
| Freedom is to Learn 2 | 15 |
|
This is the second mandatory module in year 1. Here we look at ancient and medieval cosmology, and at the role played by the idea of movement within metaphysics, physics and politics. We read important texts from Ancient Greece, most likely from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and the Sceptics. We look at some of the ideas associated with the ancient cosmos, including its being taken to and from Arabic and Judaic sources. We follow some of these ideas through western European cosmology and end the module by exploring motion and its relation to time, space and the construction of reality. |
|
| Harmonia mundi | 15 |
|
This module looks at the first principle of harmony in ancient and medieval liberal arts as it was seen to structure the ethical and metaphysical properties of the universe. We will think about this idea of harmony in relation to music, astronomy, maths, rhetoric and philosophy as well in the related areas of theology and politics. We will discuss whether we can hold to such principles of harmony today in the social, political and religious experience of dissonance and disharmony. Discussions will form part of an introduction to the Quadrivium and Trivium, the traditional subjects of Liberal Arts, upon which we can begin to think the nature of a modern liberal arts education. |
|
| Learning from the Renaissance | 15 |
|
This module introduces students to themes and personalities that were central to the period of Western history called the Renaissance. It will provide students with an historical overview of key events, as well as looking at the relation of the Renaissance to other historical periods. It will also look more deeply into selected ideas with a view to illustrating their significance both within the Renaissance and beyond. Central to the approach of the module will be to illustrate ways in which the Renaissance holds an ‘educational’ import both within itself and in terms of a legacy. Where appropriate, tutors will relate the material to both ancient and more modern issues and ideas. The module aims to increase student knowledge and understanding of the Renaissance but also to draw out its fundamental import for the notion of education in its widest sense. Many of the ideas introduced in this module will be returned to in years 2 and 3. |
|
| Theatre Histories | 30 |
|
This year-long module invites students to consider the contexts in which theatre is made today and has been made in the past. A number of texts will be explored in different contexts exploring different historical moments. The issue of the ephemerality of performance will be considered as textual and contextual materials and evidence are analysed. The key focus will be uncovering and understanding the complexity of the relationship between texts and contexts. The module will introduce debates in theatre historiography and offer methodologies for investigating theatre and its histories. A range of texts from different moments in theatre history and will be explored with the emphasis on performance in Britain. This module will encompass a breadth of theatre history whilst allowing for detailed case study work. There are two assessment points connected to this module:
|
|
| Making | 30 |
|
This module takes students on a year-long journey that introduces them to the process of making Performance in the current artistic environment. Building on understandings of performance creation and composition developed at pre-University level, students will be guided, largely through practical workshops accompanied by appropriate critical and practitioner readings, through exercises and formative tasks in inventing new work that take them into the realm of the unknown and that help them expand their capacity to create unique and original creative material for their academic age and experience. This module is a university-level primer in creative and compositional technique for the ensemble group and will engage students in a range of strategies for making work, and will require extensive in-class showings and critical feedback sessions in preparation for the assessment.
|
|
| Optional modules | |
|
Ancient 'Canonic' Tragedy |
|
Year 2 (Level 5)
Modules Credits
| Freedom is to Learn 3 | 15 |
|
The dialectic of enlightenment is one of the most profound and worrying expressions of modern rational thought. We have seen in previous modules the effect that doubt has on how we understand the work and identity of human subjectivity. Now we will explore the damage wrought by uncertainty and doubt on other fundamental concepts including freedom and enlightenment. Our task will be to see if there is something we can learn from the difficulties of the dialectic of enlightenment when we see within it how truth collapses into a culture of repetition. |
|
| Freedom is to Learn 4 | 15 |
|
This module looks back to thinking that has featured throughout the programme but also forward to leaving the Academy and becoming a graduate in the world beyond. It explores the concept of modern freedom and in particular examines the idea of Western subjective freedom in relation to such fundamental concepts as life and death, God and man, and master and slave. As you prepare to leave University, we will explore ways in which your higher education might serve you in what lies beyond- for employment as for existence itself. |
|
| Optional modules | |
|
Creator Images |
|
Optional Credits
| Freedom is to Learn 3 | 15 |
|
The dialectic of enlightenment is one of the most profound and worrying expressions of modern rational thought. We have seen in previous modules the effect that doubt has on how we understand the work and identity of human subjectivity. Now we will explore the damage wrought by uncertainty and doubt on other fundamental concepts including freedom and enlightenment. Our task will be to see if there is something we can learn from the difficulties of the dialectic of enlightenment when we see within it how truth collapses into a culture of repetition. |
|
| Freedom is to Learn 4 | 15 |
|
This module looks back to thinking that has featured throughout the programme but also forward to leaving the Academy and becoming a graduate in the world beyond. It explores the concept of modern freedom and in particular examines the idea of Western subjective freedom in relation to such fundamental concepts as life and death, God and man, and master and slave. As you prepare to leave University, we will explore ways in which your higher education might serve you in what lies beyond- for employment as for existence itself. |
|
| Optional modules | |
|
Creator Images |
|
Year 3 (Level 6)
Modules Credits
| Freedom is to Learn 5 | 15 |
|
This module complements the group of modules in Liberal Arts running under the banner of Freedom is to learn. In this module we will revisit some themes from years one and two, particularly regarding first principles and their fate in the modern world; infinite regression; virtue; and begin to open up the theme of modern metaphysics in order to begin to judge the possibility of a new idea of first principles. This is undertaken in a variety of ways, dependent to some extent on the previous work of different groups of students over the previous two years. We may embark on a study of ancient and modern versions of the famous Delphic maxim: know thyself. |
|
| Optional modules | |
|
Learning from the Holocaust (Shoah) |
|
Optional Credits
| Freedom is to Learn 5 | 15 |
|
This module complements the group of modules in Liberal Arts running under the banner of Freedom is to learn. In this module we will revisit some themes from years one and two, particularly regarding first principles and their fate in the modern world; infinite regression; virtue; and begin to open up the theme of modern metaphysics in order to begin to judge the possibility of a new idea of first principles. This is undertaken in a variety of ways, dependent to some extent on the previous work of different groups of students over the previous two years. We may embark on a study of ancient and modern versions of the famous Delphic maxim: know thyself. |
|
| Optional modules | |
|
Learning from the Holocaust (Shoah) |
|
Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing, for full-time students entering the programme in Year 1. Optional modules are listed where applicable. Please note the University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. For further information please refer to the terms and conditions at www.winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions.
The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed above.
Course Tuition Fees*
UK/EU/Channel Islands and Isle of Man
If you are a UK or EU student starting your degree in September 2018, the first year will cost you £9,250. Based on this fee level, the indicative fees for a three-year degree would be £27,750 for UK and EU students. Remember, you don't have to pay any of this upfront if you are able to get a tuition fee loan from the UK Government to cover the full cost of your fees each year. If finance is a worry for you, we are here to help. Take a look at the range of support we have on offer. This is a great investment you are making in your future, so make sure you know what is on offer to support you.
Full-time £9,250 p/a
Total Cost: £27,750 (3 years) | £28,450 (sandwich option)
UK/EU Part-Time fees are calculated on a pro rata basis of the full-time fee for a 120 credit course. The fee for a single credit is £77.08 and a 15 credit module is £1,156. Part-time students can take up to a maximum 90 credits per year, so the maximum fee in a given year will be the government permitted maximum fee of £6,935.
International Students
Full-time £12,950 p/a
Total Cost: £38,850 (3 years) | £39,550 (sandwich option)
International part-time fees are calculated on a pro rata basis of the full-time fee for a 120 credit course. The fee for a single credit is £107.92 and a 15 credit module is £1,620. Fees for students from Vestfold University College in Norway (who receive a 10% reduction) and NLA are £11,655.
*After changes made in Parliament, all higher education providers must now register with a brand new HE Regulator (the Office for Students) for their students to be eligible for student support in the 2019-20 academic year. The OfS will start publishing providers on its Register from July 2018. We have made an application to register and expect a decision by September 2018. Whilst we don't anticipate any issues with our registration, no provider will be able to confirm whether student finance is available until it has a decision from the OfS. Visit www.officeforstudents.org.uk for more information.
Additional costs
As one of our students all of your teaching and assessments are included in your tuition fees, including, lectures/guest lectures and tutorials, seminars, laboratory sessions and specialist teaching facilities. You will also have access to a wide range of student support and IT services.
There might be additional costs you may encounter whilst studying. The following highlights the mandatory and optional costs for this course:
Trips
We organise incursions and excursions to see performances. Some tickets are free. Other ticket costs are kept to a minimum. Sometimes travel costs to travel to theatre will need to be paid by the student. Indicative cost is £30.
Liberal Arts optional reading pack
The reading pack contains the essential readings for each week's seminars and forms the basis for seminar discussions and assessments. Indicative cost is a maximum of £40 per year.
Core texts
Core Texts are available from the University Library; however some students prefer to purchase their own copies. Some Core Texts can be bought second hand, or as an ebook which can often reduce this cost. Indicative cost is £50‐60.
Placement
If students undertake placements as part of their optional module choices in Years 2 and 3. They are responsible for their travel costs. Indicative cost £50‐60.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
Students will need to pay for the Disclosure and Barring Service fee if they chose an optional module where they carry out work in a school or other community context. This will either be in the second or third year of study. Indicative cost is £44.
Key course details
- UCAS code
- V593
- Duration
- 3 years full-time
- Typical offer
- 96‐112 points
- Location
- King Alfred or West Downs, Winchester
Why Winchester
Deciding where to spend the next few years of your life can be quite daunting. Not only are you dedicating three (or in some cases more) years to studying in a new town or city, you’ll more than likely be moving there too! Recent graduate, Chloe, tells us what she’s learnt living in such a beautiful and historic city.
How to write your personal statement in three easy steps
Personal statements can seem really daunting but remember thousands of people successfully write one every year to get into university, so you definitely can too. If you’re at any stage of working on a personal statement here are some ideas for how to approach it when it is feeling overwhelming.
Making Friends at Uni: Andrea’s Top Tips
The thought of starting uni for the first time can set butterflies soaring in a lot of students’ stomachs. Suddenly you’ll have to learn to navigate a new city and an unfamiliar campus, full of new people and potential friends. Here are a couple of short tips on how to meet new people and make some good friends during your first couple of weeks...
