MUSBA HASHMI speaks with Elizabeth Bradley about what the approach is, its benefits and how it makes students future ready
What is the liberal arts approach to education?
It is focused on providing students a world view, empowering them to approach complexity, change and diversity in a better manner, for example through the lens of science, culture and society.
A liberal arts education is needed to impart key communication skills (writing, speaking and negotiating); expose students to many disciplines like arts, humanities, and the social, natural and information sciences; and empower students to innovate, be creative and entrepreneurial, and chart their own paths in becoming engaged citizens and community role models.
What are its benefits?
A liberal arts education teaches one how to learn, how to think creatively, and how to communicate effectively. These are critical skills for leadership in the 21st century.
How does this approach help prepare students for all the challenges that lie ahead?
In a changing world, the most important skill is to be able to adapt, to take in new information and make sense of the situation. Learning how to learn is consistent with the liberal arts approach, where students learn across many different styles, topics and paradigms.
The liberal arts and humanities are vital to our future, preparing students for the challenges they will confront in their professional, political, social and cultural lives.
What should the Indian government do to promote liberal arts education?
The draft new education policy is a great step to recognise the importance of the liberal arts education.
Next will be needed resources devoted to infrastructure, increasing awareness about the benefits of such education, supporting faculty and students, and perhaps even supporting more international exchange programmes to learn from other countries as well.
How does the approach help in getting better jobs?
If there is one thing common in every job, it is human interaction. The humanities — the academic fields that study the human condition, society and culture — prepare young adults for the most essential aspects of work: getting along with other people, understanding multiple points of view and coming to terms with one’s place in the world.
As such, students of all majors need exposure to the humanities to be adequately — and practically — prepared for the working world. The return on investment of a Vassar liberal arts education can be seen in our excellent outcomes, with 95 per cent of students being employed, in graduate school or on a competitive fellowship within six months of graduation.
Partnership/collaborations that Vassar has entered into?
In the summer of 2019 Vassar partnered with the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda, to teach classes in the humanities and sciences, helping shape the way medical education is delivered in Africa in the future; and forged a partnership with Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, enabling Vassar students to earn a master’s degree in public health a year after they graduate from Vassar.
Vassar was also in China this summer, exploring opportunities to incorporate a liberal arts model in a local context with gifted high school students there. In partnership with the Diligence & Delight Learning Center in Beijing, we ran a three-week program taught by Vassar faculty, exposing students to a liberal arts classroom environment.