Welcome from the Head of Department

On behalf of the Department of Philosophy and the School of the Arts, I am delighted to welcome you as a new student. As an academic department, our overarching aim is to enable you to engage with a world that becomes more and more unpredictable and confusing - a capacity which will allow you to pursue numerous career paths later, and is also enjoyable in its own right. Studying philosophy is not a matter of digesting information alone, but learning a practice – something we occasionally call "critical analysis" – and as you will quickly learn, achieving this aim of becoming a critical thinker fundamentally depends on your own effort, input and motivation.

As a Philosophy student, you’ll be part of the School of the Arts, home to a wider community of scholars from five different disciplines. We are sure you will be inspired by and benefit from the breadth and vitality within the School of the Arts, with world-class teaching and in-depth specialist expertise available to you. The School also has a dedicated Student Support Centre who will help through your time at University.

You’ll find lots of useful information on our 'Welcome' pages - please do take the time to explore these pages, and get in touch if you have any questions.

I very much look forward to welcoming you to the Department in the autumn.

Professor Michael Hauskeller, Head of Philosophy