Well, the best answer is: for its own sake. But some—maybe your parents, or your friends, or even just yourself—may need some convincing.
Studying the humanities and fine arts deliver the skills you will need to begin and build careers. Effective and persuasive communication. Qualitative and analytical skills. Project management. Adaptability, individual initiative. Honing creativity and trusting curiosity. Sometimes these are called the soft skills.
There is nothing soft about them. They have always been and still are highly valued assets for employers and employees alike. True, you won’t learn how to design a bridge in our programs, but you may find curious links between the humanities and engineering. Maybe you’re an engineer who has stumbled onto this page – there are courses for you in our faculty, too.
In short, increasing numbers of business leaders around the world are saying that a degree in the humanities or fine arts is a valuable and worthy personal and financial investment.
What are you good at? What are you passionate about? This is your chance to answer those questions, and have some fun along the way.
Come study with us: For information about applying to UBC, visit the Prospective Students page.
Our students and alumni help us tell the story of the importance of studying in the humanities and fine arts. With the connections they make while at university, the skills they learn and experiences they have while studying, there are so many possibilities out there for them in the job market and in their lives.
Toby Lawrence, PhD alumna
Toby Lawrence has been working as a curator for the past 15 years. From 2020 -23, she was a curator at Open Space, an artist-run centre in Victoria. In September of 2023, she took on the role of Curator of Outdoor Art with UBC’s Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and as of fall 2024, is the curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Toby Lawrence completed a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2021, where her doctoral research critically examined contemporary initiatives reshaping curation that move beyond dominant western parameters of curation to offer something else.
Tom Leveen, MFA Creative Writing student
Tom Leveen discovered his passion for storytelling at a young age, going on to publish nine books of young adult fiction before starting the MFA program at UBCO. Leveen notes that this program has turned out to be an invigorating experience. “It has given me fresh perspectives on writing, and I’ve learned about other unique viewpoints and motivations in ways I hadn’t encountered in my professional publishing experience. I’m learning a new vocabulary, a new way of talking about storytelling and about art and creation.”
Lindsay Balfour, BA, MA and PhD alumna
Lindsay Balfour landed a life-changing fellowship at 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York after graduating with a PhD in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies in 2015. During her time there, she worked on examining the museum pieces and their relationship to a philosophy of hospitality in a time of terror. It was intense but hopeful work that she began as a PhD student with a concentration in Cultural Studies at UBC Okanagan. Lindsay is now teaching at Concordia University.
