UT Tyler College of Arts and Sciences

UT Tyler About The College

Who We Are

The College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Texas at Tyler provides a curriculum built upon the traditions and principles of The Spirit of Discovery. Our excellent faculty provides all students with first-class teaching and scholarship. Our small classes are enhanced by numerous extra and co-curricular activities, and many opportunities exist for students to explore their personal interests by working directly with faculty members on individual projects. The College of Arts and Sciences offers sixteen baccalaureate majors, ranging from traditional humanities and sciences to the social sciences, fine arts and communication. In addition to undergraduate majors, the College offers eleven discipline-based master’s degrees, as well as an interdisciplinary studies master’s degree that allows students to create a personalized program incorporating an interdisciplinary blend of graduate courses from the College.

What is a Liberal Arts Education?

An education in the College of Arts and Sciences provides students with an intellectual environment unparalleled across the university. The liberal arts and sciences have traditionally attracted the best and brightest students, those who are not solely motivated by careerism and the acquisition of technical skills. Graduates possessing a liberal arts education understand the importance of learning for its own sake, rather than viewing education as merely a means for obtaining employment. 

Through studying the arts and sciences, students become aware of the past and of possibilities for the future; acquire and practice critical and orderly judgment; pursue self-discovery and gain individual integrity; learn to appreciate diversity and personhood; understand the importance of being caring, effective and responsible citizens; appreciate the diversity of the natural world; gain a love of lifelong learning; and exercise their imaginations

Life involves more than the pursuit of a career; it also requires participation in a society that demands critical and imaginative thought. Contemporary society often contains fear, intolerance, incivility, injustice and ignorance. However, the liberal arts and sciences provide the tools that enable citizens to make choices that shape not only their intellectual, emotional and spiritual lives, but also the world they live in. The liberal arts and sciences equip students to practice critical thinking, thus avoiding reliance on prejudice and dogma; to understand a multiplicity of ways of knowing the world; and to strengthen respect and tolerance for difference.

For example, the social sciences provide an understanding of the individual’s role in a democratic society and an appreciation of what it means to be human in the political, social and cultural senses; the sciences teach reasoned and orderly ways of thinking and problem solving; philosophy allows for a more critical understanding of the nature of perception and the ability to make moral decisions; literature demonstrates how experience is shaped by choice; history helps people understand and interpret the human experience as it is challenged and enriched by the passage of time; communication enables the development and articulation of sound and logical arguments and the ability to resist manipulative messages and propaganda; the fine arts reveal our potential for creativity and imagination and the exploration of life in imaginative ways.

Career Preparation and the Arts and Sciences 

How does a liberal arts education prepare students for a career? All professions, regardless of the specific degree programs associated with them, are based on knowledge and skills acquired from the fields of study that comprise the liberal arts. A liberal, broad education prepares students for the world of work by providing them with an invaluable set of work skills that will remain useful decades after graduation. Unlike the skills acquired in a narrow technical education, the life skills acquired through the arts and sciences never become obsolete.

Employers seeking new employees state that the skills most valuable to them are (1) the ability to write and speak effectively; (2) the ability to organize; (3) the ability to solve problems creatively; (4) the ability to work effectively with others; and (5), the ability to be flexible and exercise independent judgment. These skills foster innovation and invention and enable one to assume leadership roles in society; moreover, these skills are possessed by graduates who have obtained a liberal arts education.