The four-year Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences is the University of Freiburg’s first interdisciplinary, English-taught undergraduate program and the first of its kind in Germany. It is hosted by the University College Freiburg and started in October 2012 with a pioneer group of 78 students.

Reaching across academic fields, the LAS Bachelor is complementary to the University’s existing disciplinary Bachelor programs. Regardless of students’ choices, LAS is characterized by three key features:

1. Generation, Dissemination and Application of Knowledge

2. Language and Culture

3. Responsibility and Leadership

The program consists offour study areas:

For more information on the courses in each area, please click the colored boxes.
 

1. TheCore (66 ECTS points) constitutes the intellectual identity of LAS at the University of Freiburg: All students are intensively trained in general academic skills (researching and presenting study material, effective writing, numerical literacy etc.). In order to put these skills into context and to exemplify the necessity and complexity of interdisciplinary thought and action, the first year of the program focusses on contemporary societal challenges (such as Global Inequality, Public Health, Environmental Issues). In the higher semesters of the Core Program, the students’ coursework is continuously complemented by instruction in the theory of science, knowledge and research. Finally, students follow a curriculum in responsibility and leadership and have the opportunity to engage in extracurricular activities.
2. TheLanguage part of the program (36 ECTS) ensures that all LAS students can communicate on academic topics in excellent English and good German, and ideally acquire a good grounding in a third language.
3. TheMajor (90 ECTS) constitutes the students’ thorough training in a specific academic field of Sciences and/or the Humanities that is, in itself, interdisciplinary. It aims to provide sufficient depth to make admission into disciplinary M.A. or M.Sc. programs possible. 
4. AnElectivesarea of the curriculum (48 ECTS) enables students to either pursue interdisciplinary studies of their choice, engage in more practically oriented projects or undertake specific additional training necessary for admission into their chosen M.A. or M.Sc. programs.

This arrangement combines interdisciplinarity with scientific rigor, creating space for individual exploration while maintaining a firm academic base. The specifications for each study area can be found in the official Rules and Regulations for the LAS program that are availablehere.

The following didactic principles guide our work throughout the LAS program:

• Problem-oriented learning: Real-world problems and their complexity are the starting point of teaching and learning in the LAS program.
• Project-based learning: Students often work together in groups or teams and thereby combine knowledge acquisition with social and organizational skills.
• Independent enquiry: LAS students learn how to develop questions of their own and how to reach learning goals efficiently.
• Research-oriented learning: Especially the Majors are taught with a view to current research problems and horizons.
• Adaptive teaching: LAS courses are flexible and adaptable to the students’ learning process.
• Shared responsibility: In their different roles, lecturers and students are jointly responsible for teaching and learning success.
• Small group learning: Throughout the LAS program, course size is restricted to a maximum of 20 participants.

The LAS program is mostly organized in a block schedule. This gives students and teachers the opportunity to engage very closely with each other and the topic at hand. It also provides space for innovative forms of instruction that characterize the entire program.

In conjunction with the foundation of the LAS program, the university is in the process of establishing two new professorships („Science and Technology Studies“ and „Epistemology and Theory of Science“) and has hired four full-time University Teachers. The remaining teaching is covered by special Teaching Fellowships awarded to distinguished academics from in- and outside the University of Freiburg.

The LAS program is selective. Selection places a strong emphasis on personal interviews in order to assess the motivation of applicants and the matching between the program and interested students. Its target group is students with high levels of intellectual curiosity, selfreliance and responsibility, who are looking for problem-oriented work across disciplines and are flexible and open to challenges.

You can find detailed information about Application and Admissionshere. Applications will need to be in by 15th July, and interviews for selection will take place in August. Watch the website for further information or connect with us onFacebook orGoogle+.

For further information please contact:

University College Freiburg(UCF)
Bertoldstraße 17
79085 Freiburg

Tel. +49 761 203-67342
studyinfo@ucf.uni-freiburg.de