Academic Studies

Academic Studies

Explore university-level subjects through English.

These lessons are for anyone with C1-level English, including native and non-native speakers. Explore academic subjects, learn something new and develop your English speaking skills, vocabulary and grammar at the same time.

An open book unfolds into a miniature university and warm library, with a sweeping ivory staircase, a brass globe and a coral hibiscus.

Philosophy

An ivory marble thinker beside a brass loop in a warmly lit colonnade, with a small coral hibiscus.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Would a Perfect Copy Still Be You?

Your memories survive. But do you?

C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

What Makes a Good Argument?

Being right is not the same as reasoning well.

Psychology

A transparent head containing golden branching forms faces its reflection in a tall mirror.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Could You Be Persuaded to Believe Almost Anything?

Belonging can make an argument feel stronger than it is.

C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Can We Trust Our Memories?

Two confident accounts. One uncertain event.

History

An ivory and brass hourglass stands beside a parchment map and carved stone fragment in a sunlit archive.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

When Accusation Becomes Evidence

What happens when denying an accusation makes you look guilty?

C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Revolution and Power: Did Napoleon Betray the Revolution?

A revolution promises change. Who gets to define success?

Economics

Copper coin towers and miniature market buildings sit within a glass cube linked by curved paths.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Why Do We Pay Fortunes for Things We Don’t Need?

An object can be useful, scarce, desirable—or merely expected to become more expensive.

C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Choices, Trade-offs and Sunk Costs

When does persistence become an expensive mistake?

Politics & International Relations

A monumental brass and teal globe stands within a circular diplomatic chamber of empty chairs.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Should We Choose Leaders by Lottery?

The way we choose a decision-maker can change what counts as a democratic result.

Literature

Sculpted pages of an open book sweep towards a moonlit landscape, beside a fountain pen and coral flower.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

When the System Becomes the Villain

A fair system promises an answer. A Kafkaesque one makes the question impossible.

Linguistics

Two transparent speech forms are linked by golden acoustic waves on a walnut base.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Does English Hide Parts of Reality?

What a language makes you say is not the same as what it lets you think.

Sociology

A warmly lit neighbourhood courtyard is surrounded by homes at blue hour.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Is Success Really Earned?

An outcome can show achievement without telling us how much opportunity helped produce it.

Classics & Ancient Civilisations

An imagined classical Greek temple stands beside a teal sea, with a terracotta amphora on the foreground pavement.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Lost Knowledge: How Can a Civilisation Forget?

A surviving object can reveal extraordinary skill—and how much has disappeared.

Art History

A visitor considers teal and coral paintings beside an ivory sculpture in a sunlit museum gallery.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Who Decides What a Painting Means?

An interpretation needs room to breathe—and something in the work to support it.

Law

Balanced brass justice scales stand on a walnut judicial bench in a sunlit courtroom.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Would You Plead Guilty If You Were Innocent?

A formal choice can look very different when time, money and freedom are at stake.

Business & Management

Three professionals discuss wooden planning models around a walnut table overlooking a city.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Why the Smartest Team Doesn’t Always Win

A clever plan is less useful than discovering its hidden weakness while there is still time.

Computer Science & AI

A luminous logic mesh sits beneath a glass-topped microprocessor, with copper traces spreading over a teal circuit board.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

When AI Does Exactly What You Asked—and Gets It Wrong

A high score can conceal a badly specified goal.

Anthropology

An artisan demonstrates basket making to an attentive adult observer in a warm craft workshop.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Why Are We the Only Humans Left?

The last surviving branch is not necessarily the simple winner of an intelligence contest.

Religious Studies

Coloured geometric stained glass casts warm light across a quiet stone hall beside a brass lamp.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

What Do Our Afterlives Say About Our Lives?

Imagined worlds beyond death can illuminate ideas about justice, order and a good life.

Astronomy

A brass observatory telescope points towards a crescent moon through a blue open dome.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Where Is Everybody? The Fermi Paradox

A striking absence is only as informative as the search that could have detected something.

Environmental Science

A tree with exposed roots grows between layered stream banks, with flowing water and dawn light.
C1–C2Speaking · Critical Thinking

Should We Engineer the Climate?

Two interventions can affect temperature while acting on very different parts of the problem.