Year One Foundation Program in Arts - Transfer to Bachelor of Arts - History of Art, Design and Visual Culture (Honors) (Optional Co-op)

When students join the University of Alberta’s Year One Foundation Program, they become U of A students from day one. They receive academic support that prepares them to enter a bachelor’s degree program in their second year, along with a “soft landing” to studying in Canada.

The University of Alberta’s Year One Foundation Program represents the first year of a four-year bachelor’s degree. It is designed for students who have course deficiencies and do not yet meet the academic entry requirements for their chosen degree program. Upon successful completion of the program, students progress directly into the second year without losing time on their path to graduation.

Why study this program? This program explores our visual world and its messages. Course topics range widely, from representations of sex and death in the Renaissance, to performing bodies in contemporary activist art, to China’s design revolution. Students will learn the practice of slow looking, how to pose original questions of art works, and how to engage in creative research projects, including faculty/student curatorial projects and pop-up exhibitions in public spaces.

This major can also be taken as part of a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Why study a Bachelor of Arts with Honors? Arts honors is designed to foster a tight-knit community of academic-minded undergraduate students who can come together to share ideas, work collaboratively, get mentorship from their upper-year peers, and access more specialized supports from their department and faculty teams at every stage of their studies.

Taking part in an honors program is the best way to dip a toe into the research process, develop connections with professors and other academics, and get a taste of what graduate school may have in store while completing an undergraduate degree.

When combined with potential research projects, Honors students can narrow down an area of specialization much earlier than they would otherwise.