Arts and Humanities

Arts and humanities encompass the study of human culture, expression and thought across history and across different societies. Literature, philosophy, history, art history, music, religious studies, classical studies and the history of science all belong to this broad family of disciplines, and studying them together develops the ability to move between different forms of human expression and to understand each in relation to the others. The humanities are fundamentally concerned with what it means to be human, and with how different people in different times and places have understood, expressed and grappled with that question.

The Open University offers this arts and humanities programme in a part-time and distance learning format, which makes a serious humanities education accessible to students who cannot attend a residential university. The Open University has a long and distinguished tradition in humanities education through distance learning, and its materials and pedagogical approaches are designed to support effective independent engagement with difficult and demanding cultural material. The programme is broad in its scope, allowing you to explore multiple disciplines within the humanities while developing the core skills of close reading, contextual analysis, argument construction and clear writing that all of them share.

Distance learning in the humanities requires self-discipline and the motivation to engage with complex ideas independently, but it also offers a flexibility that is uniquely suited to students with other commitments.

Studying arts and humanities develops attentiveness to language and to human expression in all its forms, the ability to understand ideas and works within their historical and cultural contexts, and the capacity to construct and communicate well-evidenced interpretive arguments.

Graduates work in education, publishing, journalism, the cultural sector, the civil service, broadcasting, marketing, public relations and a wide range of fields where the ability to read, write and think clearly about complex human questions is valued. Further study in any of the constituent humanities disciplines is well supported by the broad foundations the programme provides.