Arts One is like no other program at UBC Vancouver. Since its launch in 1967, it has nurtured student success for more than 50 years. This first year program continues to put small cohort learning at the forefront, giving students the opportunity to establish close-knit relationships with their peers and professors that last long past the first year.

Students explore a diverse set of texts that are connected to a central theme. They engage in meaningful conversations about the texts in seminars of 20 students each, write essays every two weeks critically analyzing the texts and the theme more broadly, and receive extensive feedback from their peers and seminar leader in smaller tutorial groups. Through the Arts One integrated curriculum that is unified around a guiding theme, students transform from high school students to independently-minded scholars.