Squeezing Out Liberal Arts
I'm sure that my post this month that said that the value of a college degree is going to fade over the next few decades, and that this will be especially true
of liberal arts degrees and programs, undergraduate and graduate, did not win me any fans in those academic areas.
All my own student work was in the humanities. I still teach in the humanities. And I still believe in a liberal arts education. But that appreciation can't change what is happening in education.
Especially now as the federal government and states (who typically provide two-thirds of the aid) tighten their allocations to public universities, the humanities is often the first area hit with budget cuts. In a speech this year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott made an argument that is heard more and more. The world outside academia sees STEM fields (science, technology, engineering & math) and medical fields as ones that offer career prospects, and the humanities fields are seen as more of an indulgence.
It is even sadder that those more desirable career-specific majors are viewed as offering a better high-tech payback. They offer returns for states,
universities and businesses because of the patent royalties, grants, and products. Research on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays doesn't have those possibilities.
This is hardly a new trend. Humanities studies peaked in U.S. colleges in the 1960s and started dropping in enrollments in the 1970s when business, technology and the other computer-related fields took off. Today, the humanities accounts for only about 8 percent of graduates (in comparison, business is 20%). Even the liberal arts colleges are disappearing. Of 212 liberal arts colleges identified in 1990, a study published in 2009 by Inside Higher Ed shows that only 137 were still operating.
of liberal arts degrees and programs, undergraduate and graduate, did not win me any fans in those academic areas.
All my own student work was in the humanities. I still teach in the humanities. And I still believe in a liberal arts education. But that appreciation can't change what is happening in education.
Especially now as the federal government and states (who typically provide two-thirds of the aid) tighten their allocations to public universities, the humanities is often the first area hit with budget cuts. In a speech this year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott made an argument that is heard more and more. The world outside academia sees STEM fields (science, technology, engineering & math) and medical fields as ones that offer career prospects, and the humanities fields are seen as more of an indulgence.
It is even sadder that those more desirable career-specific majors are viewed as offering a better high-tech payback. They offer returns for states,
universities and businesses because of the patent royalties, grants, and products. Research on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays doesn't have those possibilities.
This is hardly a new trend. Humanities studies peaked in U.S. colleges in the 1960s and started dropping in enrollments in the 1970s when business, technology and the other computer-related fields took off. Today, the humanities accounts for only about 8 percent of graduates (in comparison, business is 20%). Even the liberal arts colleges are disappearing. Of 212 liberal arts colleges identified in 1990, a study published in 2009 by Inside Higher Ed shows that only 137 were still operating.
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