About the BA in Value Studies
The ECLA degree programme is designed to secure a very high level of general education, while preparing for continued study in fields such as philosophy, literature, political theory, and art history. The ECLA degree also provides excellent support for students interested in careers in politics, organizational work, public policy, law, journalism, or the art world.
It takes four years to complete the programme. Students spend the first two years at ECLA dividing their time between common core courses and foundational studies in their areas of concentration. The third year is arranged for each student individually according to his or her interests, and will normally be spent studying or working somewhere else in the world. Students finish their degrees back in Berlin with a year structured around a research project supervised by one or two of the ECLA faculty members.
Students completing the programme will receive a BA in Value Studies and concentrate in two of the following three areas:
ART AND AESTHETICS
ETHICS AND POLITICAL THEORY
LITERATURE AND RHETORIC
ECLA is applying for accreditation in both Germany and the United States. Since the Bachelor degree in Value Studies is not a recognized German degree yet, students who enrol in the programme in 2010 will receive their degree from Bennington College in Vermont, a Liberal Arts College accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
About ECLA - European College of Liberal Arts
Founded in the year 2000, ECLA is a private, non-profit institution of higher education in Berlin, Germany. It's a college without departments, dedicated to the study of values. Students are taught in small classes and one-to-one tutorials by a select faculty from disciplines like philosophy, literature, political theory, art history, and film theory. Academic programmes include a six-week International Summer University, one-year programmes for undergraduates and recent graduates, and a B.A. Programme in Value Studies. Possible areas of concentration are Art and Aesthetics, Ethics and Political Theory, and Literature and Rhetoric. Philanthropic grants allow the college to have a need-blind admissions policy and no qualified student is turned away for lack of funding. Students and faculty come from all over the world and work together in English. They share the facilities of a small residential campus and the cultural riches of one of the most vibrant capitals in Europe.
Information about accommodation: ECLA is a residential college with a green campus located in Pankow-Niederschönhausen, the northern part of Berlin. Most of ECLA’s buildings were built in the 70s and formerly belonged to the embassies of several countries in the GDR (including Cuba, Egypt, and Nigeria). The houses have been recently renovated. Student houses are equipped with all the necessary facilities: there is a kitchen, a laundry room, a lounge and a computer lab in each of the dorms. ECLA’s library and a music room are just across the street. In fact, everything on campus is within walking distance. In ECLA’s cafeteria around the corner students are provided with three meals a day by a catering company.
ECLA’s campus is a space for ongoing discussion, which continues oftentimes outside of the classroom. Different activities, happening also in the dorms (for example, poetry nights or late night talks) strengthen the sense of a learning community.
Students in their first two years of study share a room with a fellow-student, which facilitates the cultural exchange between students from different countries. Advanced students, especially those working on an individual project, get a single room.
Information about the city: What better location for an innovative laboratory for liberal arts than a historic city that has reinvented itself several times? Berlin provides an ideal setting for ECLA’s small, international academic community.
In the frame of ECLA’s Berlin programme, students and faculty come together to explore Berlin’s cultural heritage and continued development. All students receive museum cards for the academic year, and may attend selected dance performances, classical concerts, lectures, plays and Berlinale films at subsidized prices. Nights out in Berlin often end with conversations in a café.
ECLA is a 20-minute tram ride away from Berlin Mitte, as well as from Prenzlauer Berg, one of the trendiest districts in the former East Berlin. A ten-minute tram ride or seven-minute bicycle ride brings students from campus to the U-Bahn station Pankow, which links ECLA by underground and city trains to all parts of the city.
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