Degree highlights

Our Interdisciplinary Problems and Methods (BASc) is the first programme of its kind in the UK.

Qualitifaction

Undergraduate degree (BASc)

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start date

September 2023

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Duration

3-years

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home Fees

£9,000 / a year

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Location

London

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Time

Full-time

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Introduction
Interdisciplinary Problems and Methods (BASc)

Our undergraduates tackle complex, real-world problems by applying knowledge and skills from a range of subjects.

The problems our students tackle are complex in nature and require interdisciplinary solutions e.g. climate change, ethical AI, the future of cities, and social inequality.

The core of our approach

At the heart of our BASc degree you’ll find three things: complex problems, interdisciplinarity (many different subjects), and the opportunity to work with real organisations.

Careers
Undergraduate internships

At the end of each academic year, we broker optional, paid internships for all UK students in good standing with the university.

Previous employer organisations include KPMG, Innocent Drinks, Fidelity International, Tech Nation, MTR Elizabeth Line, Texture AI, B Corp UK, Spitalfields City Farm, Making Design Circular, and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

What do our students think?
Blaise

Current Student

"After starting a 'monodisciplinary' degree, I was dissatisfied with the extremely limited scope of knowledge that was being taught. I stumbled upon LIS and discovered the degree that would give me the space to explore several academic interests, all while developing an invaluable professional skillset. No brainer."

Jet

Current Student

"You know when someone asks if you could have one super power, what would it be? LIS really feels like that superpower."

Dhiresh

Current Student

"I left secondary education deeply frustrated. I felt I had been forced to narrow it down and couldn't understand why. It seemed so clear that the things I cared about - sustainability, health promotion, community building, and the revolution heralded by AI, couldn't be understood (let alone tackled!) by one discipline alone.. Finding a university where I didn't have to sacrifice any of my interests, that had a strong focus on professional skills, and that would allow me to grapple with real-world problems was absolutely a no-brainer. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else."

Sarah

Current Student

"LIS is exactly the institution I hoped it would be plus more. The collected faculty has such diverse and overlapping sets of interests that I feel as though every field and method is only a message away. Without the dusty tradition and institutional sluggishness of my previous universities, the staff have been able to listen fully to students and their partners to build the university around the problems it solves. It's a really exciting place to be, and I'm thrilled to see how it continues to develop.”

Jethro

Current student

"During my time at LIS, I have grown to recognize the vital nature of interdisciplinary collaboration in unravelling complex problems. By forging connections between seemingly unrelated fields, we facilitate a more intricate and all-encompassing understanding of the world we inhabit and inspire the birth of positive change.”

Geanina

Current student

What you’ll learn
The curriculum

Throughout Year 1, you’ll gain key knowledge and skills from a diverse range of disciplines, with real-world problems acting as a framework for your thinking. You’ll build on this foundation in Years 2 and 3, becoming equipped with an increasingly sharp, interdisciplinary problem-solving toolkit.

We reserve the right to not run a module if there is insufficient student interest.

The content of our modules is subject to change as we revise our modules each year depending on student feedback, developments in the field, and the complex problems of the modern world. To gain a degree in the UK you must pass a certain number of credits in each year of the degree. Each module is given a credit, which you are awarded when you pass each module at assessment.

Your interdisciplinary faculty

She/Her

Emma Ahmed-Rengers
Faculty

Emma was a Lecturer in Law and Data Science at the University of Birmingham before joining LIS. She also previously taught legal theory, political theory, international law, and philosophy of science at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a Master of Law (LLM) from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics (PPLE) from the University of Amsterdam. Emma is currently completing a PhD in Law at the University of Birmingham, focusing on algorithmic regulation.

Rosita Bannert
Faculty

Rosita is a UCL BASc graduate living the polymath life with more than one career. She is a self-taught web engineer who loves building with code as well as traditional materials.

He/Him

Dr James Everest
Lead on Qualitative Methods

James studied languages at Cambridge, then worked for three years in public sector communications, before completing a Masters in English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London, and a PhD in the history of science at UCL. He has taught on the Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences degree programme at the University of Birmingham and the Arts and Sciences programme at UCL.

Dr Ebrahim Patel
Faculty

Ebrahim is an applied mathematician who holds an MMath and PhD from the University of Manchester, both in Mathematics. He is especially interested in the mathematics of complex systems and human behaviour, and the majority of his research and teaching career has been spent at the University of Oxford. Ebrahim co-founded The Bees, an award-winning writing group that promotes the understanding and enjoyment of mathematical techniques.

He/They

Dr Ash Brockwell
Lead on problem-based Learning

Ash is an interdisciplinary educator, writer, and consultant. He holds an MBiochem degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Environmental Anthropology from the University of Kent, and a PhD in Education for Sustainability from Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands.

Dr Priya Lall
Faculty, Lead on Research Ethics

Priya is a social epidemiologist whose work has promoted social justice causes in developing countries. Some of these causes include access to healthcare for marginalized groups and the provision of water and sanitation. She is a founding member of faculty at LIS and is currently overseeing research ethics. In terms of teaching, her specialities are qualitative research methods, health, politics, gender and environmental change. As a member of LIS, she is keen to challenge and share insights with other learners.

He/Him

Andy Redford
Head of Quality

Andy studied archaeology at the University of Exeter before doing his MA and then PhD in Archaeology at the University of Bradford. Andy's career has included working in a number of universities in the UK, working on projects including the Research Excellence Framework as well as Institutional Review. Andy is a Quality Assurance Agency Reviewer and focuses on quality assurance and governance.

Dr Matthew Brett
Faculty

Matthew trained and practised as a doctor before specializing in neuroscience. He is an open-source software developer and has worked on the basic packages for data analysis in Python, among other projects. His main passion is thinking about new, accessible and revealing ways of doing and teaching data analysis.

She/Her

María Angélica Madero
Lead on Prep Culture and Content Creation

María Angélica is an artist, who has exhibited her work in cities such as Los Angeles, London, and Cali. She is a founding faculty member at the LIS, where she leads in Prep Culture and Content Creation. Additionally, she is an Honorary Professor at El Bosque University in Colombia, where she was Head of Art from 2015 to 2020. She holds an MA in Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, and an additional MA in Philosophy and Critical Theory from Kingston University.

Dr Bronwyn Tarr
Faculty

Bronwyn is a human behavioural scientist interested in the evolution of social behaviours, particularly music and dance. She completed her DPhil (PhD) at the University of Oxford and has continued her research in evolutionary anthropology and psychology there.

Waqās Ahmed
Faculty

Waqās is founder of the DaVinci Network, author of The Polymath (Wiley 2019) and creator of the Polymath Festival. His research interests center around human diversity and performance. He holds a BSc in Economics (SOAS) and postgraduate degrees in International History (LSE) and Neuroscience (King's College London). His main professional careers have been in diplomatic journalism and visual art.

Lara Kinneir
Faculty

Lara is a designer who trained in architecture and spatial design in Glasgow, Madrid and London. Lara has worked in academia, city regeneration, government policy, design studios, think tanks and global organisations that are focused on the bettering of people and planetary life. Her interests are in social and spatial justice, spatial design, multilateral partnerships and innovative governance.

She/Her

Dr Catalina Pesce
Faculty

Catalina started her academic journey studying Engineering Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Chile, where she also obtained a MSc in Applied Mathematics. She holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Oxford and her current research focuses on nonlinear partial differential equations and their applications. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is keen on helping students develop mathematical thinking skills through active learning.

Dr Anson Cheung
Faculty, Quantitative Methods Lead, Pastoral Lead

Anson is a theoretical physicist with a background in building models in condensed matter theory. He specialises in complex systems with many-body interactions. He received his undergraduate degree and PhD from Cambridge University where he was a research fellow and remains an affiliated lecturer. Keenly interested in the pedagogical development of problem-solving skills at the secondary-tertiary interface, he is a trustee of the British Physics Olympiad, and he has also served in middle management in secondary schools.

Isaiah Wellington-Lynn
Lead on Coaching and Integration

Isaiah is an anthropologist, product designer, and storyteller. He is reading for a PhD at the University of Oxford, holds a BSc in Anthropology from UCL, and was a visiting undergraduate at Harvard. Isaiah's interests include belonging, meritocracy, inclusive product design, sustainable fashion, and social mobility.

Dr Mattia Gallotti
Head of Research and Development

Mattia is a social philosopher with a background in economics and a keen interest in academic governance and innovation. His work is conceptual and the subject is social ontology. Over the years, he has sought to connect and integrate concepts of social philosophy across a range of intellectual discourses and styles, from cognitive science to theology. Before joining LIS as an Associate Professor, Mattia lectured on the philosophy of the social sciences at LSE and he managed a multidisciplinary program on the human mind in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. As a postdoc, he held fellowships at Columbia University and the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris.

Dr James Carney
Faculty

James is a computational linguist who uses artificial intelligence to understand the relationship between cognition and culture. He is especially interested in the intersection between interpretive, computational, and experimental methods of inquiry. His research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, the European Commission, and Innovate UK. Previous to coming to LIS, James worked in Brunel University London, Lancaster University, and the University of Oxford (where he held a Junior Research Fellowship). He is also founding director of Texture AI, a data science company that has had the BBC, Google, ITV, Reach PLC, the UK Cabinet Office and other leading organisations as clients.

Prof Carl Gombrich
Academic Lead and Director of Teaching & Learning

Carl is the Lead Academic at LIS and oversees curriculum design, teaching, and learning. He was previously a Professorial Teaching Fellow of Interdisciplinary Education at UCL and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Finance
Fees and funding

Find out more about our course fees, financing options, and support available through bursaries and grants.

These are the fees for the 2023/24 academic year

Read on

Fees
Home
£9,000 / a year
International
£15,000 / a year
International Scholarships
3 scholarships
Admissions timeline
Early-bird application deadline

25th of Jan 2023

Final deadline

until 1st of Sept 2023

term begins

25th of Sept 2023

Our admissions process looks a little different to that of a traditional university. We think that’s a good thing.

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