Globalized World and Emerging Requirements in Higher Education: Compelling Need for a Re-Defined Role of the Liberal Arts Education System
Abstract
It is common to witness liberal arts and professional education being discussed as two far ends of the spectrum of higher education. This is the case at many levels—institutional leadership, policy makers, students, higher education accreditors, ranking agencies, and so on. The two are seen to share no common goals. Whereas liberal arts education is thought of as an intellectual superfluity with no concrete and measureable gains, professional education is misperceived to be the onlyroute to the workplace. It al-so comes across as though professional education were the really serious and pressing concern, certainly the one more deserving of the attention of policy makers and state funds. This depiction has impeded liberal arts in many ways. Most importantly, it has inhibited decision makers at the levels of institutions and the government in supporting liberal arts education and thrusting it forward. The decision to preferentially treat programs in STEM and other technically-oriented disciplines taken by board members bears conse-quences on the choices that the final stakeholders—the students—make. It undermines the status of liberal arts education as an important and worthy model. Many students who might otherwise have pursued liberal arts do not opt for it, and those who must compulsorily complete some liberal arts-oriented courses in professional degree programs do so reluctantly, so that they may get on with what really matters—their core curriculum in medicine or engineering or whatever else they may be studying.
It need barely be stated that, in situations of reduced state appropriations, the model that faces the brunt is the liberal arts one (along with the streams of humanities and social sciences). It is unwelcome indeed that the very system of higher education that gives students an edge in today’s globalized world is being de-emphasized as a result of mis-perceptions and ignorance amongst institutional and governmental policy apparatus. As voiced encouragement and funds towards liberal arts diminish in policy statements, the popularity as well the quality of liberal arts programs take a hit. In order to restore the recognition that is due to liberal arts, we must begin at the top of the higher education hierarchy. The policy makers must first appreciate that liberal arts are crucial to shaping the outcome of the very endeavor of professional education. Fur-ther, they must be led by educationists to recognize that, although liberal arts courses are a valuable investment in and of themselves, aspects of theliberal arts education modelmust be valued as an indispensable complement to the study of STEM and other professionally-oriented disciplines.
