The London Interdisciplinary School will allow students to follow courses based around problem solving skills
A new private college – part-funded by the government — is set to open in London offering degree courses combining arts, sciences and business skills, the BBC reports.
Students at the London Interdisciplinary School in Whitechapel, east London, will all take a combined course focusing on global issues, incorporating numerous disciplines.
The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) will have 100 students in its first cohort next autumn, paying £9,000 per year.
Applicants will not have to achieve specific A-levels to be admitted, but they will be interviewed to see if they are suitable for the course.
The new college comes after research by Unifrog, a careers platform, revealed that US-style “liberal arts” degrees – combining humanities and sciences – shot up to become the most popular shortlisted subject for Year 12 pupils using the platform, pushing medicine into second place.
A US liberal arts degree is increasingly popular among pupils at UK independent schools.
Ed Fidoe, one of the founders of the new college and a former McKinsey employee, said his aim is to provide something different to what is currently on offer at universities.
Mary Curnock Cook, former head of the Ucas admissions service, said that the decision to cross disciplines and subject areas would be a “superb and rigorous innovation”.
The college is being co-founded by the interdisciplinary academic and former opera singer Carl Gombrich, along with the online entrepreneur Chris Persson.
The new college aims to become a fully-fledged university in the next few years.