Bachelor of Arts - Interdisciplinary Studies

The Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Interdisciplinary Studies is a four-year degree for students who want to build a subject combination that no single-major program offers.

Rather than a fixed sequence, students construct a coherent program across two or three areas — drawing on psychology, sociology, political science, history, philosophy, English, geography, communication, global stewardship and Indigenous studies — anchored by a required methods core and an interdisciplinary capstone. Faculty advising is part of the structure: the combination has to be argued for, not just assembled, and the capstone requires integrating the strands into a single research project.

The honest read on this degree is that its value depends on the student. Built with intent — say communication plus political science for policy work, or psychology plus sociology for social services — it produces a genuinely distinctive graduate profile. Built without a plan, it reads as unfocused to employers. CapU’s small advising ratios are what make the first outcome likely.

CapU is a fully public teaching university on Vancouver’s North Shore — a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19280078102) with university status since 2008. Classes are small, faculty teach rather than delegate to assistants, and tuition sits well below the big Vancouver research universities while the credential carries the same public-institution standing.

Its field maps to CIP 30.9999 (Multi/interdisciplinary studies). As a bachelor’s degree, graduates are exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction and may qualify for a Post-Graduation Work Permit of up to three years. Full-time on-campus study and graduation remain the conditions, and final decisions rest with IRCC.