History of Our Degree Program

This degree/program has been around in some format since 1969, originally offered as the Bachelor of University Studies (BUS) degree, and then modified to become the Bachelor of Liberal Arts (BLA) for the 2012 through 2017 catalogs, and then updated to Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts (BALA) for the 2018-2022 catalogs.  Starting in 2014, University College also began offering an additional degree program titled Bachelor of Integrative Studies (BIS) from 2014-2018 and Bachelor of Integrative Studies and Innovation (BISI) from 2019 to 2022.  With the 2023-24 UNM Catalog we merged BISI and BALA, and by doing so revised the name of our now one single degree to Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts & Integrative Studies (BA-LAIS) fully reflecting our department and the interdisciplinary nature of our studies.

We have alumni from all of these different degree iterations that have gone on to use their degree in a variety of successful ways as well as earning over 40 different graduate degrees.  If you are alumni from our program, we would love to hear from you.