The Integrated University Curriculum: Liberal Arts, Civic, and Professional Education
A false binary has gripped colleges and university campuses, one that saturates narratives both on campus and beyond the boundaries of our campuses. That binary and those narratives suggest that college and university campuses either advance the liberal arts or they bend to social, cultural, and economic pressures to advance career or professional education. More concisely, the binary includes liberal education on one end and career education on the other end of a fictional spectrum.
What if we move beyond that false binary and clarify (once more) the outcomes of a liberal arts and a liberal education, as those outcomes align so well with the aims of professional education? What we suggest here is that four-year campuses across the country ought to embrace and publicly champion liberal education — i.e., a model of education that ultimately liberates a person from ignorance, naiveté, habit and convention — and integrate liberal arts, civic, and professional education. Indeed, many outstanding universities all across the country are already doing so. These campuses subscribe to the notion that no good professional education is complete without artes liberales — subjects of study for free persons.
A university campus may emphasize both a liberal arts or liberal education and professional education. These two approaches to education are not somehow at odds with one another particularly if/when a campus is committed to a robust general education curriculum. At the same time, it is not enough simply to honor an institution’s liberal arts tradition. Commitment is required. Defenders of liberal education are needed, even among faculty and administrative ranks. Likewise, it is flawed thinking to imagine that the liberal arts merely provide “the foundation for” or “serve” professional study. Let’s consider how to integrate liberal arts, civic, and professional education and how such an integrated model serves our students and, in turn, society.
The many and nuanced conversations around higher education today — i.e., conversations about rising tuition cost, return on investment, access for new majority students, performance-based funding models, the need to reduce tuition dependency and diversify revenue streams, etc. — do indeed point to pressures on liberal arts universities. The same context motivates us constantly to reflect on the outcomes of a liberal education. It is important to note here that neither the Germanic nor UK education models ever anticipated that previously excluded populations would become the new majority of students entering the university classrooms.
Today’s students are not the children of the landed gentry; they are not coming to our campuses to be missionaries; nor are they coming to us for finishing school. The vast majority of students, uniquely those who are among the new majority, are attending universities for the purpose of economic mobility. And that is what they and their family members will tell us is their primary motivation for working toward and earning a four-year degree.
The desire for economic mobility does not run counter to inquiry-based liberal education. In fact, economic mobility comes from the knowledge and essential skills students acquire through university study. Likewise, research shows that an education that expands one’s horizons to include such great thinkers and writers as Luz Argentina Chiriboga, James Baldwin, Tabish Khair, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Bi Feiyu and so many others who work beyond the standard western canon, ultimately produces citizens who are more empathetic and culturally aware in a globally connected world. In his 2012 book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, Andrew Delbanco articulates similar educational outcomes when he writes, “More than achieving the competence to solve problems and perform complex tasks, education means attaining and sustaining curiosity and humility. It means growing out of an embattled sense of self into a more generous view of life as continuous self-reflection in light of new experience, including the witnessed experience of others.”
Like so many other authors today, Delbanco illustrates a very important point. Education is more than preparation for a job or career; however, to be fair, Delbanco does not negate such preparation. A liberal education such as that which is found precisely in a college’s or university’s general education curriculum prepares students to think critically, to work creatively toward solutions to complex problems, to communicate effectively in both speech and in writing, to collaborate with peers from diverse backgrounds and diverse experiences, to acquire a sense of intercultural and cultural competence, and to consider the ethical implications of scientific, medical, cultural, and technological innovations. Such outcomes extend well beyond vocational, technical, and career training. It is for these reasons that major healthcare groups such as the Institute of Medicine have for decades recommended the Bachelor of Science of Nursing (BSN) as the entry to practice instead of the more technically focused RN degree. In fact, studies show that such preparation result in better patient outcomes.
Human health as a subject of study is, of course, complex. And because questions about what it means to be human are at the core of the liberal arts, nurses who are steeped in the liberal arts tradition have the necessary intellectual skills to complement their technical skills and, therefore, optimize human health. They are immersed in the values and behaviors that reflect humanism: empathy, respect, care, integrity, service and a commitment to life-long learning and personal development.
Nurses are challenged to practice in a rapidly evolving field of medicine, and they are often called to make decisions despite a dearth of evidence, as COVID made clear in the early months of 2020. To make life-or-death decisions, the liberal arts-educated nurse independently critiques primary sources while delivering care that is compassionate, socially conscious, and constantly evolving. In short, a liberal arts education undergirds nursing’s ability to produce creative and critical thinking professionals who provide holistic care. Nurses rapidly integrate best practices in complex medical care situations while balancing the psychosocial, spiritual, and economic realities of their clients, whether clients are individuals, families, or communities.
The ability to differentiate between what is “most true” for patients among these myriad competing issues ultimately is nursing. Nursing education extends studies in the liberal arts into upper-division and graduate education. In fact, nursing faculty very often challenge the notion that “only liberal arts faculty teach the tenets of the liberal arts.”
Furthermore, there is a demonstrable relationship between the outcomes of a liberal education and what employers want in today’s graduates. We contend that it’s OK to connect the essential outcomes of a four-year degree — specifically the outcomes of a liberal education — and jobs/careers after graduation. Indeed, the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) has committed years and resources to the pursuit of essential learning outcomes four-year campuses rightly ought to celebrate and continue to instill in their graduates. These “Essential Learning Outcomes” include the following:
- knowledge of human cultures, as well as the physical and natural world, that is acquired “through study in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts”;
- intellectual and practical skills that include inquiry (creative and research-based inquiry) and analysis, critical and creative thinking, proficiency in written and oral communication, quantitative and information literacy, and collaboration in problem solving;
- a sense of personal and social responsibility that comes through “civic knowledge and engagement — local and global, intercultural knowledge and competence, ethical reasoning and action, [and] foundations and skills for lifelong learning”;
- integrated and applied learning that includes synthesis and advanced study across both general and specialized courses of study.
Graduates with such knowledge, essential skills, empathy and commitment to their communities — as well as a record of applying that knowledge, those skills, and that commitment through experiential opportunities — are ideally situated for life, including a career, after graduation. They not only ask, “How do I live well?” They extend that important question to ask, “How do I live well for others?” The discovery of “obscure and wonderful things,” as Cicero noted, “is necessary for a blessed life.” That is true for the enrichment of ourselves and for our ability to serve others.
A word from employers here about what they seek in today’s graduates. In a 2013 study, the Hart Research Associates surveyed 318 employers whose organizations had at least 25 employees and report that 25% or more of their new hires hold either an associate’s degree from a two-year college or a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college. The respondents were executives at private sector and nonprofit organizations, including owners, CEOs, presidents, c-suite level executives, and vice presidents. In that study, entitled “It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success,” results showed that 93% of the respondents valued a graduate’s broad-based knowledge and abilities beyond those one acquires through focused study in a specific major or professional program. The respondents also valued “a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems [a]s more important than their undergraduate major” (original emphasis). Likewise, 80% of the respondents privileged a liberal arts-based education. Of the eleven “key findings” in that study, respondents point to various types of knowledge, habits of mind, and essential skills as important considerations when hiring, “placing the greatest priority on ethics, intercultural skills, and capacity for professional development.”
The respondents also emphasized specific outcomes they prefer to see in today’s graduates: critical thinking and analytical reasoning; complex problem solving and analytical skills; proficiency in written and oral communication; the application of knowledge and skills in real-world settings; the ability to locate, organize, and evaluate information from multiple sources; and the ability to innovate and create. Similarly, there was broad agreement among respondents that today’s graduates, regardless of their chosen major or field of study, should have educational experiences that teach them about “building civic capacity, broad knowledge about the liberal arts and sciences, and cultures outside the United States.” It does, indeed, take more than a major. Today’s graduates acquire such knowledge, skills, adaptability, and capacity through a broad general education curriculum.
And breadth of study need not come at the expense of depth. Many institutions today extend their general education curriculum across all four years, and there is significant depth of inquiry in courses both at the lower and upper divisions. Indeed, a campus’ general education curriculum is the very locus of a liberal arts experience. The problem is that we collectively do not do well in communicating the outcomes of a four-year degree, including the cultural and economic value of those outcomes, to publics beyond the boundaries of our campuses.
In a more recent study from 2015, the Hart Research Associates demonstrated similar findings to their prior survey. In “Falling Short: College Learning and Career Success,” the group shared key findings from their survey of 400 employers. Respondents — again executives at private sector and nonprofit organizations, including owners, CEOs, presidents, c-suite level executives, and vice presidents — were asked about the ideal knowledge, skills, and adaptability of college and university graduates. Two key findings are particularly relevant here. First, the study’s respondents overwhelmingly endorsed “broad learning” once again as ideal preparation for long-term career success. This broad learning is achieved in and through a general education curriculum. Second the study’s respondents once again prioritized proficiency in skills and knowledge that cut across majors, i.e., written and oral communication skills, teamwork skills, ethical decision-making, critical thinking skills, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings that may include internships, undergraduate research, and practicum experiences.
The argument we have advanced here is ultimately a call for us — all of us — to make more public arguments about the value of liberal education. And in doing so, let’s not pit it against professional education. The spirit and value of liberal education is not in conflict with professional education. And we trust that the spirit and value of professional education is not somehow in conflict with liberal education. We are preparing students for life after graduation, a life that includes, yes, a job and a career, and we are preparing them to be valuable contributors and leaders in their respective communities, i.e., citizens and leaders who are ethical, capable problem solvers, excellent communicators, and empathetic people who enjoy a life that is enriched by their education. We are creating an interesting as well as interested polis of citizens who go out into life after graduation and make a positive impact on the world. Education is, indeed, a noble profession. And liberal education in particular, as Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, President of the AAC&U, notes “offers the best preparation for work, citizenship, and life.” Let’s embrace that idea and be champions for the intellectual life of our students regardless of their degree path.
Authors: Joe Wilferth is Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Linfield University. Miles Davis is President of Linfield University. Kim Jones is Associate Dean of Nursing at Emory University. Jennifer Madden is Dean of the School of Business at Linfield University.
