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Liberal Arts The Key to the Future

USA Today (Magazine) - November 1, 2000

"While not losing their broad arts and sciences orientation, liberal arts programs will become more pragmatic to prepare graduates to succeed after college."

IN THE FUTURE, a classroom- and experience-based liberal arts education will be the core of the post-high school academic experience. All other learning will flow from this foundation. Specialized education, distance learning, corporate training, and other growth opportunities will find their roots in a liberal arts curriculum that will combine a transfer of fundamental disciplines with knowledge, skills, and love for learning. The heavy load of information, insight, and stimulation will respond to the needs of the Millennial Generation, as well as to the demands of the older generations returning to the college campus.

The impact will be seen first at small liberal arts colleges and then at universities with a separate, identified liberal arts college. The university programs will transform to imitate the private colleges that emphasize student-faculty ratios in the 1:10 to 1:20 range. This shift will be expensive, but competitively necessary.

While not losing their broad arts and sciences orientation, liberal arts programs will become more pragmatic to prepare graduates to succeed after college. Many will begin working right away, given the demand for their talent, postponing graduate school or arranging for their employers to pay the freight for them to continue their education and work at the same time. (Expect flexible working hours to accommodate this duality.)

The emphasis that the liberal arts curriculum places on critical and creative writing, speaking, and critical thought is appreciated by employers. Too many of their employees have serious difficulty constructing written sentences and producing quality memos, letters, and reports. In this fast-moving world, spoken communications skills are essential, yet a high proportion of college graduates lack the critical skills of being able to talk on their feet--or even seated, for that matter. Liberal arts, with its concentration on developing these skills, has a definite advantage.

An even higher experiential component will weave its way into the liberal arts curriculum. Increased sensitivity to the shrinking world will stimulate more foreign travel with professors, studying cultures, history, art, literature, language, and other subjects that will enrich students' understanding and appreciation of the planet and its people. That background will support graduates as they become employees of companies with deliberately diverse workforces and growing global engagement.

The Internet will be heavily used for research, but not as much as a substitute for lace-to-face classroom learning. The high level of communication, give-and-take, and relationships with faculty and fellow students will keep undergraduate liberal arts in a classroom environment. The classroom, however, will not be defined as merely a room with four walls, desks, and marker boards. Classes will meet outside on the grass, in professors' homes, in venues to be studied, as well as abroad. "Classroom" will take on a much more dynamic and creative definition.

The four-year model may disappear. Though colleges are still structured to provide an education over a period of four academic years, some changes and student ideas and desires are altering the picture. A number of students want to keep moving right through school, without the traditional summer recess. They prefer to continue their classes to complete their requirements to graduate sooner to enter the lucrative world of work. With the heavy burden of repaying college loans, others are highly motivated to complete college as quickly as possible to minimize their future debt load.

Some may find the costs of college too much to handle as traditional full-time, four-year students. Smart college administrators and professors will become much more customer-oriented (typically a foreign term in this environment) and find ways to keep students connected--perhaps through some sort of distance learning--while they are earning money to continue their formal education. Some students will work for a while, then go to school part or full time for a period, then drop out to work full time to earn more money to continue. Individualized programs will be developed to serve these student-customers.

People who specialized in undergraduate school--in accounting, engineering, computer science, premed, or other professional orientations-are discovering there was something missing in their education. They didn't acquire the knowledge, skills, background, and insight a liberal arts education offers. While they want a different kind of learning, people who have been out in the working world for a while don't want to go back to school to earn another bachelor's degree.

Some liberal arts colleges have begun offering master's degrees. This is a natural extension of the work of these schools as well as the learning process for those who have specialized undergraduate degrees and experience. The Greensboro branch of the University of North Carolina, for example, already offers a Masters in Liberal Studies. Hiram (Ohio) College, a forward-thinking liberal arts institution, is contemplating adding a masters program. With a long history of innovation, Hiram has 900 traditional students and another 340 in a weekend program that has enjoyed success since 1977.

Liberal arts curricula, whether delivered at the bachelor's or master's level, provide a strong foundation for what is needed today--and tomorrow---in business, government, education, and not-for-profit organizations. With the incredible challenges that will face workers in the fast-changing business environment, strength in communications and critical thinking will be invaluable. Greater idea sharing and collaboration are part of the liberal arts approach, bolstered by an appreciation of history, culture, literature, and their lessons for contemporary times.

Graduates of liberal arts colleges will be well-positioned to take advantage of the exciting opportunities of the future. The design of their comprehensive education will serve them well. Young people today would be well-advised to absorb a broad base of knowledge, travel, and expand their horizons. Avoid too much specialization in undergraduate years; that was good preparation, but for a bygone era. The preparation for tomorrow will be building a perspective of learning that can be used as a springboard in practically any direction.

If you are a college-bound youth, carefully consider what future careers will entail. Remember that you will be looking at a hopscotch model of future employment, with easy movement between career paths. You will want to have the academic foundation that will enable you to move comfortably across career fields to take advantage of the opportunities that will come your way.

If you are already working, but don't have a college degree yet, examine your career to date. What experiences have you accumulated? What insights have you gained into the futures available to you? An undergraduate degree--at least--will be required for entry into some of those opportunities, which will then open doors for more prospects. If you return to school, choose a collection of academic pursuits that will let you sample a wide range of fields while you learn to think at a higher level. That is liberal arts, and the degree you earn will validate that you set academic goals for yourself--and met them.

If you already have an undergraduate degree, explore how well your acquired knowledge and experiences are serving you today. How well will they serve you in the future? What's missing? Chances are, you didn't get some of the liberal arts underpinnings that will bring your present knowledge and skills to their fullest use. Your best approach may be to take a selection of courses without earning another degree, but, as more master's degrees in liberal arts become available, a new world of educational possibilities will open for you.

Whatever direction you go, continue learning in every way that you can. What you gain will serve you in the fast-changing world of tremendous opportunities. Don't get left behind. Take advantage of your learning to keep up, and preferably stay on the leading edge of what is happening, particularly in your chosen field of endeavor.

Workplace trends

Having followed the above advice, what can you expect to find once you have left the halls of academe? A number of trends in the workplace likely will have great impact on your future.

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