Dive Summary:
- This spring, Occidental College is offering a course titled "Liberal Arts at the Brink? Navigating the Crisis in Higher Education," which examines whether liberal arts curriculum in higher education can survive today's high unemployment and rising student debt.
- Many students are moving away from liberal arts degrees, favoring technical professions that currently offer better employment opportunities post-graduation--and states like Florida are even offering incentives like tuition freezes for students who go into degree fields such as engineering and biotechnology.
- Defenders of liberal arts education say that the influx of resources and students to technical degree fields is a losing proposition for both students and the country, creating workers who aren't as adaptable as those with broader educations or well-versed in critical thinking and communication skills.
From the article:
... It’s a question many experts are asking – and some worry about the consequences. The number of liberal arts colleges nationwide has dropped from 212 in 1990 to only 130 today, according to a study this summer in the journal Liberal Education. The National Center for Education Statistics says the share of students matriculating with a liberal arts degree, as a percentage of all graduates, dropped slightly from 2004 to 2010 from 3 to 2.8 percent. ...