The Faculty of Arts was one of the three original faculties of the University of British Columbia. Renamed the Faculty of Arts and Science in 1922, it administered all departments and programmes in the natural, physical and social sciences, humanities, and creative arts. By 1962 the Faculty had about half of the University's total enrolment and was responsible for three-quarters of academic instruction. The resulting administrative complexities led to its division in 1963 into the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science. The reduced Faculty of Arts included the Departments of Anthropology and Sociology, Asian Studies, Classics, Economics and Political Science (split in 1964), English, Fine Arts, Geography, German (renamed Germanic Studies in 1976), History, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Romance Studies, and Slavonic Studies, plus the Schools of Home Economics (renamed Family and Nutritional Sciences in 1984), Librarianship (renamed Library, Archival and Information Studies in 1985), and Social Work.
Since 1963 the Faculty has added the Departments of Religious Studies (1965), Creative Writing (1965), Theatre (1965, renamed Theatre and Film in 1991), and Linguistics (1969). Romance Studies was split into the Departments of French and Hispanic and Italian Studies in 1967. The School of Music was formed in 1987. Since 1990, Slavonic Studies has been disbanded. Family and Nutritional Sciences has been transferred to the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, and departmental mergers (forced in part by financial constraints) have created the Departments of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, and Theatre, Film and Creative Writing. The Faculty of Arts continues to provide instruction and facilitate research in the humanities, social sciences, and creative arts.