Liberal Arts and Sciences

Liberal Arts and Sciences in Freiburg

The four-year Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is an English-taught interdisciplinary undergraduate program. LAS is a specific approach to Bachelor level education and offers an alternative to disciplinary study programs.

LAS reaches across academic fields while also offering discipline-oriented academic training in one particular Major. It encourages students to critically reflect on science and knowledge and to become skilled communicators and creative shapers of their environment. Focusing on the education of the whole person, it creates opportunities for personal development into motivated and responsible human beings in an interdisciplinary and international learning community.

At UCF, the key to an interdisciplinary, choice-driven education is understanding what (scientific) knowledge is, how it is produced, and how knowledge and society interact. This is reflected in the LAS program’s emphasis on the conditions, methods, and roles of science and in two professorships established specifically for the program: Epistemology and Theory of Science and Science and Technology Studies (Prof. V. Lipphardt).

Internationality is an important aspect of the Liberal Arts and Sciences program. This shows in the course contents as well as in the composition of students. More than 25% of LAS students are international. And incoming exchange students further enrich internationality at UCF. LAS students are encouraged to spend part of their studies abroad, and about 80% of all LAS students do so.

Short Facts

Application period: July 1 – August 20
Degree: Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Sciences (depending on choice of Major)
Begin of Course: October
Duration: 8 Semesters
Total number of Credits: 240
Specifics: interdisciplinary, English-taught undergraduate program
Tuition: Registration fee of appr. 150 Eur per semester for all students. State of Baden-Württemberg tuition fees for non-EU students (1,500 Eur per semester) and for students seeking a second Bachelor degree (650 Eur per semester). For more information, please see the University Student Portal >
Departments: interdisciplinary initiative

The LAS curriculum

The Liberal Arts and Sciences curriculum combines academic breadth and depth and provides students with choice and development opportunities within a structured framework and interdisciplinary learning community.

The Core (66 ECTS credits) is a distinctive feature of the Freiburg LAS program: It fosters students' academic and personal development by offering a range of courses on reflections of science and knowledge as well as on responsibility and leadership. Furthermore, students are intensively trained in general academic key skills (for research, analysis, presentation, and writing). 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).

The Major (104 + 16 ECTS credits) constitutes the students’ training in a specific academic field. It aims to provide sufficient depth to make admission into disciplinary M.A. or M.Sc. programs possible. After their first year of studies, students choose one of the following Majors:

1. Culture and History
2. Governance
3. Life Sciences
4. Environmental and Sustainability Sciences

In their Electives (56 ECTS credits), students can take courses outside of their Major, visit courses at other departments of the University of Freiburg and EUCOR, attend language classes, undertake independent projects, and/or use these credits for courses taken during a semester or year abroad.
This arrangement combines interdisciplinarity with scientific rigor, creating space for individual exploration while maintaining a firm academic base. The LAS Course Catalog, the Module Handbook, and the official Rules and Regulations are available here.

The LAS program stands for

• 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.
• Shared responsibility: In their different roles, lecturers and students are jointly responsible for teaching and learning success.
• Small group learning: Throughout the LAS program, most courses are restricted to a maximum of 20 participants.
• Internationality of staff and students including study abroad opportunities and a double degree option in Liberal Arts and Sciences with University College Maastricht

Our target group is students with intellectual curiosity and responsibility, who are looking for breadth and depth in their academic training. The LAS program is selective. The grade- and interview-based selection emphasizes academic achievements and personal motivation.
Join us at our Online Open Days: In 2020 the LAS Open Days will be held online and we invite you to our live Q&A sessions, and to check out the information and the many videos and impressions we have compiled for you.

University College Freiburg (UCF)

University College Freiburg was founded in 2012 at the University of Freiburg. It serves as a central and interfaculty platform for promoting and administering international, interdisciplinary teaching activities. It complements and supports the faculties’ work in this field, serves as a laboratory for innovative approaches to teaching and instructional design and houses high profile projects, notably the Bachelor program in Liberal Arts and Sciences.