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The Liberal Studies degree is designed to help students develop the breadth of knowledge and skills that represent the core of liberal education, including knowledge of human cultures and the natural world; communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills; and teamwork and collaborative abilities. Employers seek employees who have the broad general skills, like those developed through the liberal studies major. In addition, they want employees who have applied the knowledge in real-world settings; and this is an area where UW-Eau Claire truly excels for its students.

Creating your program

This major is ideal for students with multiple academic interests, for transfer students and non-traditional students. It provides an alternative to traditional majors by allowing you to design an interdisciplinary major around a theme of your choosing in consultation with your adviser. The liberal studies major provides you with an opportunity for study in greater breadth than is possible when majoring in a specific disciplinary area.

Creative Curriculum

Students will take three required liberal studies seminars and develop with a faculty advisor a thematic course of study supported by three interrelated concentrations. This provides a coherent intellectual framework for academic work and formalizes student engagement in integrating and transferring knowledge across subject matter and skill areas. For example, many recent Liberal Studies majors have participated in an interdisciplinary travel seminar taught by faculty in Women's Studies with expertise in communications, multi-media presentations and sociology.

This provides a coherent intellectual framework for academic work and formalizes student engagement in integrating and transferring knowledge across subject matter and skills areas.

Collaborative research with faculty

Students in this program will be encouraged to take advantage of UW-Eau Claire’s strong tradition in student-faculty collaborative research by developing and implementing a research, scholarly, or creative project, especially related to the integrating themes of their individual academic program.

Immerse yourself

Liberal Studies majors like to take their education outside of the classroom walls. Recent majors have had internships in Los Angeles with SESAC, a performing rights organizations and in Eau Claire with the United Way. Liberal Studies majors have also experienced other immersion experiences such as participating in a travel seminar to San Francisco to attend Frameline35, a major international film festival. Last year, Liberal Studies students participated in national student exchanges to the University of New Mexico and Humboldt State University as well as study abroad semesters at the London Metropolitan.
More career information

Examples of Themes students have created:

- Communication and
  Community with an
  Environmental
  Emphasis
- Creative Productions
- Culture, Communication
  and Personal Expression
- Documenting Cultural
  and Religious Studies
- Humans: Their
  Creative Minds,
  Natural World and
  Societal Influences
- International Relations
  with an Emphasis
  in Germany and
  Eastern Europe
- Multimedia
  Communications
- Narrative and Self
- Recreational Therapy
- Religion and Youth
  Studies
- Social Advocacy
- Understanding the
  Development of and
  Providing Services to
  Children
- Women and Culture
  in Asia