Program Overview

Our four-year BA Curating, Heritage and Human Rights (including foundation year), will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills in order to support your academic performance. Our five-year version of this course enables you to study abroad during your fourth year of study.

This course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study, or a further four years if you choose the five year course, including a study abroad year. During your Year Zero, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with additional English language for non-English speakers.

After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our School of Philosophy and Art History.

BA Curating, Heritage and Human Rights will deepen your knowledge of curatorial practice, whilst studying human rights, developing your confidence to advocate for individual and community rights, social justice and social change. In addition, the degree will introduce you to the critical study of heritage, including ethical and legal debates, and questions around how heritage is preserved, communicated and displayed, including issues of spectatorship and community engagement.

You will study topics including:

• History of the museum
• Curatorial ethics
• Heritage management
• Social dimensions of human rights
• Digital heritage and museums
• The role of new technologies and new media in heritage and museums

To study on our course, you don’t need an A-Level in Art or Art History. In fact, we believe that the best students of visual culture are those who bring fresh eyes and new perspectives to their objects of enquiry.