Our campus is based in Whitechapel, part of London’s East End (Zone 2).

The area is buzzy, multicultural, and creative, with a strong alternative music and arts scene spearheaded by the Whitechapel Art Gallery. In typical London fashion, the architecture is varied, ranging from Georgian and Victorian terraces to converted warehouses and new builds.

We’re a stone’s throw from the Square Mile, Tower Bridge, and Shoreditch – you can take a stroll up Brick Lane to see lots of street art amongst the bars and cafes. Nearby you’ll also find Old Spitalfields Market, BoxPark, the Brick Lane foodhall, Spitalfields City Farm, Petticoat Lane Market, St. Katherine Docks, and the Nomadic Community Garden.

Visit Our Campus to learn more.

At LIS, we don’t have our own accommodation. Instead, we have established agreements with some of London’s leading accommodation providers. This means that you can socialise and live alongside students from a diverse range of international and national backgrounds from other universities in London including LSE, UCL, and Queen Mary.

In your second and third years, you can choose to remain in halls, or you might like to share a flat with your friends.

Our accommodation providers have sites across London, in Bethnal Green, Hackney, and Stratford. Prices start at £160 per week, and may be subject to change in future years.

You can find out more by visiting our accommodation page.

Some students may also choose to rent privately, or commute from home. Regardless of where you decide to live, we will work hard to build a strong sense of community and belonging amongst all LIS students.

We’ve looked at lots of research into optimal contact hours and believe that 12-14 hours per week is the sweet spot. Fewer hours than that and there is not enough structure or teaching time; more and you don’t have enough time to reflect and research.

As a rough guideline, you would be expected to spend about double the time studying independently. So, 24-28 hours of independent study. This adds up to no more than a typical working week (i.e. the time you’d spend doing a 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday) – but how you manage your independent study time is up to you.

As you progress through the 3 years, you might have fewer contact hours in the form of lectures, but a higher percentage of one-to-ones.

Teaching will take place in a variety of settings such as lectures, seminars, tutorials, masterclasses, workshops, panel discussions, and crits.

You can find out more about the LIS approach to teaching in How you’ll learn.

While face-to-face teaching is our preference, we’ve been building up and testing our digital capabilities through professional development programmes and the founding cohort, and are confident that we can still provide a great online teaching and learning experience, should it be necessary.

Our degree will make use of a variety of assessment methods – not just essays and problem sets. These include presentations (to peers and external audiences), individual research projects, creating videos and other media, designing campaigns, and short quizzes.

In your final year, you will complete a Capstone Project – an opportunity for you to work on a real-world problem of your choosing, individually or in teams.

Many of our assessments will reflect the kinds of outputs you’d be expected to produce in a professional setting.

Class sizes will vary depending on the situation. At one end of the scale you’ll have one-to-ones and small group coaching sessions, and at the other end of the scale you’ll have sessions with your whole cohort.

You can visit the Course Content page to see a full breakdown on the degree structure for Years 1, 2, and 3 of the BASc Degree. If you have any questions around a specific module, we’re happy to put you in touch with the relevant faculty member who will be teaching you.

To an extent, yes.

You will start each term with a clear, important question relating to a complex problem. Throughout the term, you will be able to choose from a range of disciplines and methods to study in multiple cycles.

In year 2, you will be able to select optional methods modules that will allow you to delve deeper into specific areas of interest.

During year 3, you will have the opportunity to  exhibit the sum of your learning in interdisciplinary problem-solving and methods, by working on a Capstone Project independently to tackle a problem you care about.

At LIS, when we talk about ‘specialising’, we aren’t talking about gaining deep knowledge in one particular part of a subject. We’re talking about specialising at the intersection of disciplines e.g. by combining psychology and law to understand the legal decision-making processes of judges and juries; or by combining sociology, geography and physics to understand aspects of CO2 reduction for climate change in different countries. This is interdisciplinary specialisation.

You’ll be able to develop your own area of interdisciplinary expertise through the disciplines you choose within problem areas, through the elective modules you choose in years 2 and 3, and through your final Capstone Project.

We don’t currently offer the option to study languages. That being said, you are welcome to speak with your academic tutor about ways you might include outside studies in a foreign language into your time at LIS, and join or create language societies to learn with other students.

It’s great to see the ID movement growing, we’re really excited to be a part of that.

Most ID degrees in the UK, e.g. liberal arts and sciences programmes, entail studying a number of modules across different departments at a university. Students tend to study several subjects at the same time, but rarely are they given the opportunity to really bring disciplines together.

At LIS, interdisciplinarity means finding out what happens when you combine fundamental theories and concepts from different disciplines – maths with design, anthropology with data science, statistics with philosophy – to generate hybrid knowledge.

Unlike other interdisciplinary degrees, we deliver problem-based learning. The chosen problems each term are representative of the current time, are dynamic, and evolving. They reflect what students care about, what organisations care about, and what the world needs.

Visit About us and Undergraduate BASc degree to learn more about our vision and approach to interdisciplinary learning.

Internships are optional (but strongly encouraged) and we commit to brokering an internship for all students who apply to take one on – as long as you are in good disciplinary standing at LIS. And whilst we can’t guarantee your top choices, we will certainly take your preferences into account.

You can learn more about our commitment to your future in World of work.

Typically, internships will last for a period of four to five weeks (or part-time equivalent) each year.

Immersive internships will typically take place after term time at the start of the summer holidays. Impact (project-based) internships may take place throughout the year as they can be done part-time. There will be no clash with term-time, however.

We’re dedicated to supporting your development by providing the tools and opportunities you need to enhance your employability.

A BASc degree from LIS could set you up for many opportunities spanning from a future in entrepreneurship, large multinational firms, high-growth tech, professional services firms, graduate front line jobs in social work, government and international NGOs, or indeed a life in academia. You could also pursue a law conversion and become a solicitor or barrister.

Our network of hundreds of employers are all excited by the prospect of hiring BASc graduates – to the extent that they are starting to send their existing workforce on LIS short courses so they can get these skills.

Absolutely – you’ll receive a BASc degree which is the same level of qualification you’d get from a traditional university.

Prof Carl Gombrich, our Director of Teaching and Learning, used to run the BASc at UCL, and many of his graduates went on to do postgraduate work (master’s and PhDs) in a variety of fields.

We want you to feel part of LIS, as well as the vibrant student community here in London. So we will run an LIS Welcome Week whilst also connecting you to external events taking place around the capital for freshers.

We have also partnered with Queen Mary University for Student Experience, meaning LIS students can attend their freshers events, in addition to our own induction activities.

Check out Student Life to learn more.

Our founding cohort is made up of 65 diverse, motivated and curious students, and we are looking to build on this in 2022.

We know that starting a degree is a big life transition. We want to make sure you have the support you need—whether it’s help with your academic, professional, or personal circumstances.

Visit the Support & Wellbeing page to learn more about our support framework for students.

An international student is someone who does not have “settled” status in the UK and would need to apply for a visa to study in the UK.

There are many rules and exceptions around being “settled”. In brief, being settled means both being normally living in the UK and not having any immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK.

If you fall into any of the following groups then you will not normally have any restrictions on the length of your stay in the UK:

(i) If you have indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or Indefinite Leave to Enter (ILE);
(ii) If your passport describes you as as a “British citizen”;
(iii) If you have a Right of Abode in the UK in your passport;
(iv) If you are a citizen of the Republic of Ireland.

There are other exceptions which you can learn about here.

The most important thing to remember is that you can hold an accepted offer to LIS at the same time as any offers you have through UCAS. We would recommend that you wait until you get your results before making any final choices.

Once your results come out in the summer (18th August 2022 for A Levels) you will have two options if you no longer wish to take up your place at your firm UCAS choice:
1) You can accept your LIS offer and withdraw from UCAS
2) You can accept your LIS offer and reject your places in UCAS. If you do the latter, then you will be entered into Clearing

Before taking either of these actions, we recommend notifying an adviser at your school/centre.

We want to make sure that you’re given every opportunity to succeed at LIS and we know that everyone’s situation is different. So that we can provide financial support to meet different needs we have three main forms of bursary. If you receive any of the financial support listed below you will never need to pay anything back.

If your household income (the money that your parents/carers earn together) is below £25,000 then you will be eligible for bursaries in each year of study.

We know that your financial situation can change at any time. To support you when you most need help, we have a dedicated fund for hardship grants which are decided on a case-by-case basis.

As part of our internships programme, we will be brokering opportunities for all our students. We will ensure that all internships pay at least the London Living Wage and expect that a typical 5-week internship will be worth approximately £2,000.

You can learning more in the Student Support section of our Student Finance page.

As a registered provider, students who study at LIS will be eligible to access student finance (including both tuition fees and maintenance loans).

You can learn more on our Student Finance page.