Flexible Honours

Introducing our suite of multidisciplinary study options for arts, languages and cultures students.

Learn more about how a Flexible Honours works.

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Experience is everything. We want to ensure that you have the broadest range of options available to you during your studies, and that's why we have introduced a series of ways for you to study a combination of subjects to suit your own personal interests, career objectives and future aspirations.

Our Flexible Honours scheme may offer you the opportunity to study an additional arts, languages or cultures subject, allowing you to create a unique blend of knowledge, experience and transferable skills to suit your needs.

Our varied programme options are ideal for students who are independent-minded, creatively ambitious and capable of combining their passion and intellect to take an innovative approach to study; inspiring connections across subjects and using their multidisciplinarity to gain a competitive edge.

Our Flexible Honours scheme allows you to:

  • begin a new subject from scratch to enhance your career development and employability;
  • make links between your specialisms and use cross-discipline understanding to further your study;
  • combine a passion and/or personal interest with your studies;
  • complement or contrast an existing subject with a supplementary subject.

Today's jobs market demands a different kind of graduate. Multidisciplinarity coupled with technological advances mean that graduates are not just entering pre-determined roles, but in some cases, they are determining roles themselves.

The ability to adapt to change, remain flexible in your thought process and stay hungry for new knowledge and experience through your studies could prove fruitful in your future career. Many employers seek to recruit graduates who have skills that cross multiple fields of expertise to demonstrate their adaptability and resourcefulness.

Hear from our academic staff and students about the benefits of studying on a Flexible Honours course.

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How does it work?

Our undergraduate courses are flexible, which means that you can study a combination of subjects across the fields of arts, languages and cultures in a range of different ways.

If you apply to study for one of our Single Honours degrees, you may have the opportunity to take 40 credits (that’s typically two 20 credit course units), which is equivalent to one-third of your course credits for the year, in another arts, languages or cultures subject (subject to academic approval and availability).

This additional subject will be known as a Minor subject and your original Single Honours degree subject will become your Major subject to help distinguish between the weighting of your different areas of study.

Taking a Minor will allow you to explore another subject area, but it will still allow you to complete your original Single Honours degree.

At the end of your first year, you'll have the opportunity to reflect on your study experience so far. You can choose to continue with your current Minor subject at Years 2 and 3, and you can even have the subject featured in your degree title should you wish.

Alternatively, if you feel that your Minor subject isn’t right for you, you can simply drop it and revert back to your original Single Honours subject. If you decide to drop your Minor subject, you can still make use of your free choice credits at Levels 2 and 3.

Your Academic Advisor will provide guidance and assistance in determining the right option to meet your specific needs, career ambitions and interests.

Compatible Single Honours degrees

The following Single Honours degrees are compatible with Flexible Honours study:

What's a Minor?

A full Honours degree comprises 120 credits per year, with at least 80 credits gained from your main subject area.

If you study a Minor alongside your Single Honours subject, this will account for 40 credits of your total 120 credits per year. Your Single Honours subject will then account for the remaining 80 credits.

Your Single Honours subject will be referred to as your Major subject, to help distinguish between the weighting of subjects in your degree.

Your multidisciplinarity may lead you to make interesting links between your subjects, or your Minor may help you to balance a personal interest with your original field of study.

What can I study?

Subject options

Flexible Honours encompasses an exciting range of previously unavailable subject combinations – including award-winning staff and courses.

Visit the Minor subjects page for a full list of available subjects and further information about each of these.

You'll receive unit information for all Minors in the summer before you register at the University.

In order to take a Minor subject, you must be studying a compatible Single Honours degree. Please note that all Flexible Honours combinations are subject to academic approval, availability and timetabling constraints.

If you have any questions about specific subject combinations please email us: flexhons@manchester.ac.uk or download our frequently asked questions.

Frequently asked questions

If you have a question about Flexible Honours which isn't covered in our FAQs, please email us at flexhons@manchester.ac.uk.

How to apply

You should apply for your Single Honours degree via UCAS as normal.

We will send you information about Flexible Honours subjects available to you during the summer before you register at the University. Your Major subject of study must be the Single Honours subject you applied to via UCAS.

You can confirm your Minor subject from early September, and we will provide details of how to do this in the subject information.

We do not hold separate interviews for Minors study and you do not need to mention Flexible Honours in your UCAS application. You should, however, mention your Flexible Honours subject choice in any correspondence with our admissions team.