What SSLA Offers

Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts offers faculty and students the opportunity to engage with, understand, and reconcile a wide range of ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives across several disciplines within a flexible learning environment. It seeks to provide a cultural orientation to the world in which we live and equip students with ideas, analytical and communication skills, global perspectives, as well as the ability to synthesize knowledge and make informed and flexible value judgments.

SSLA endeavours to position itself as the preferred destination for students, faculty, larger academic fraternity, and industry to engage in interdisciplinary studies, rigorous research, community engagement, personal development growth and sustainable employability. It aspires to provide a programme that assists young students to grow into critically conscious citizens who are able to find a healthy balance between personal, professional and civic life with a focus on strong academic foundation, sound ethical norms, civic mindedness, problem solving capabilities and transferable skills.

We live in a world that seems to be forever changing...a new world with dynamic challenges that requires young enthusiastic adults capable of playing positive and fruitful roles in organizations and communities.

The Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts strongly believes in the importance of a comprehensive education in preparation for career advancement and for the exercise of leadership. We believe organizations and society have an urgent need for creative individuals who will readily learn on the job, after having been exposed to a broad and comprehensive education.

Based on the experiences with liberal arts in the last 11 years, we know that a sound liberal arts education provides a much needed cultural orientation to the world in which we live and equips students with ideas, analytical and communication skills, and global perspectives along with the ability to synthesize knowledge and make informed value judgments.

(From the Director’s Desk)

The liberal arts programme at Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts is a holistic programme designed as a combination of multi, inter and transdisciplinary learning focused on transferability of skills, employability and a spirit of enquiry. The focus is on critical thinking, research, analysis and writing along with civic mindedness. The programme aspires to augment and develop individuals who are critically conscious and able to find a healthy balance between professional and personal growth.

Our Liberal Arts programme is styled very closely on international models while also fulfilling the demands of a higher education programme in India. Students engage with a wide range of courses with the freedom to pick and choose Minor and Major areas of specialization from areas previously considered to be ‘academically incompatible’. A student can combine subjects like Business studies as a Major with a Philosophy Minor or Mathematics & Statistics as a Major with an Anthropology Minor. This gives students a chance to enter hybrid workspaces where expertise from two disciplines offer and edge over others. Unique combinations like Biology and Economics opens up avenues in fields like Health Economics, Policy Making, Pharmacare etc.

SSLA offers students the opportunity to study a four-year full-time Bachelor of Arts (Liberal Arts) Honours Degree and Bachelor of Science (Liberal Arts) Honours Degree programme covered over eight semesters. It is mandatory to complete a minimum of 198 credits to graduate with a Honours degree. In addition to the honours degree which was introduced in 2019, SSLA has also been offering Bachelor of Arts (Liberal Arts) and Bachelor of Science (Liberal Arts) degree since 2012.
A detailed programme structure for the
Bachelor of Arts (Liberal Arts) Honours and Bachelor of Science (Liberal Arts) Honours can be found here
A detailed programme structure for
Bachelor of Arts (Liberal Arts) and Bachelor of Science (Liberal Arts) can be found here
SSLA’s POs / PSOs
Programme Outcomes/ Programme Specific Outcomes

SSLA

  • Offers a vibrant space for multi-inter-and-transdisciplinary studies that encourages expansive understanding and the cultivation of critical and transferable skills.
  • Encourages holistic learning by bringing together, rigorous disciplinary expertise and 21st century generalist skills
  • Promotes research that supports community growth and development at local, global, and glocal levels, while fostering a community of socially responsible citizens and leaders.
  • Encourages and values a diversity of ideas and the free expression of opinions in order to cultivate a diverse community of knowledge seekers who appreciate critical thought and scientific temper.
  • Strengthens national and international partnerships to foster internationalisation@home and develop global and intercultural competencies.
  • Continues to bridge the gap between the curriculum and the evolving needs of the employment sector by linking academic learning with the demands of the global ecosystem to foster professional growth.

At SSLA, flexibility is not about confusion. It is about choice with guidance and structure. The SSLA programmes offers students the opportunity to

  • Explore multiple subjects before declaring a focus
  • Combine disciplines that interest them
  • Change direction as interests evolve
  • Build a learning path that feels personal

This flexibility is especially valuable for students who are curious, reflective, and unsure about fitting into a single predefined box.