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After you’ve been admitted to the Bachelor of Arts degree, you’ll have to decide which courses to take when registration opens in June. That might seem like a long way off, but it’s worth thinking in advance about how you might like to structure your timetable.

There are three ways to shape your first year in the Faculty of Arts.  and the  offer curated course schedules, where you’ll take most of your classes with the same group of students—helping you build connections with peers and professors from the start. These programs provide a more structured, interdisciplinary learning experience with built-in academic support, making them a great way to transition into university. You can also choose to create a Custom Timetable, selecting individual courses and building your own schedule.

What are Arts One and CAP?

Arts One and CAP allow students to study together in small seminars (up to 25 people) and larger lectures (up to 200 people). Each brings courses and ideas together across different disciplines – for example literature, history, psychology, economics, and philosophy – by focusing on a shared topic or theme.

Both programs are worth 18 credits, but you can take up to 12 additional credits (2 classes each semester) to explore other subjects you’re interested in.

Why should you choose Arts One or CAP?

Arts One and CAP will help ease your transition from high school to university by offering:

• A pre-selected timetable — most of your first-year requirements are included, so you don’t have to worry about picking courses to fulfil your degree requirements
• Coordinated assignment deadlines, which means your major assignments won’t overlap or cause too much stress
• Dedicated academic support with program-specific advisors who are there to help you throughout your first year
• Access to exclusive study spaces where you can connect with your classmates and professors

The small-group format makes it easier to form friendships and build a sense of community, while close interaction with your professors helps you build personal connections and sets you up for a variety of degree pathways across different disciplines.

What’s the difference between Arts One and CAP?

Arts One

Arts One is a single, integrated course led by five instructors who work together to create the assignments and a reading list centred on a shared theme. The program is capped at 100 students, and then divided into five seminars each with up to 20 students. You will also meet regularly in smaller groups to present and discuss the papers you’re writing, offering a more personalized way to refine your work and ideas.

Rather than taking six separate one-term courses, you’ll take one cohesive course with multiple components that let you approach the materials from a variety of perspectives.

You’ll explore classical and contemporary texts from novels and philosophical writings to political texts, films, drama, and graphic novels to discuss their impacts on culture and society. The professors will take turns giving the weekly lectures, and you’ll work closely with one instructor who leads your seminars and tutorials each week.

CAP

In CAP, you’ll get to choose from one of , each offering a different combination of courses from across the Faculty of Arts. This year’s streams are: Environment and Society, Individual and Society, Law and Society, Media Studies, and Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE).

While courses in your CAP stream are separate, the faculty members work together to make sure the themes and concepts you study in each course are connected. They also coordinate the timing of major assignments and tests within your CAP courses, helping make your core workload more manageable, (deadlines for elective courses are set independently).

Like Arts One, CAP offers smaller classes than you will find if you choose a Custom Timetable, with seminar-style courses typically having 25 students, and lectures having up to 200 students.

How to register

Registration for both Arts One and CAP is first-come, first-served. Both programs simplify the process by offering easy-to-use forms on their websites, or you can register directly in Workday when first-year registration opens in June. Find out more about and on their websites.

Looking for more information? Read what it’s like to be an and a and why students chose each program.