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Liberal arts education

Liberal arts education (from Latin liberalis 'free' and ars 'art or principled practice')[1] is the traditional academic course in Western higher education.[2] Liberal arts takes the term art in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally vocational, professional, or technical, as well as religiously based courses.

"Liberal arts" redirects here. For other uses, see Liberal arts (disambiguation).

The term liberal arts for an educational curriculum dates back to classical antiquity in the West, but has changed its meaning considerably, mostly expanding it. The seven subjects in the ancient and medieval meaning came to be divided into the trivium of rhetoric, grammar, and logic, and the quadrivium of astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music. The modern sense of the term usually covers all the natural sciences, formal sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.

(biology, neuroscience)

Life science

(physics, astronomy, chemistry, earth science, physical geography)

Physical science

(logic, mathematics, statistics)

Formal science

(philosophy, history, english literature, the arts, linguistics, anthropology, theology, archaeology)

Humanities

(economics, human geography, political science, jurisprudence, psychology, sociology)

Social science

The modern use of the term liberal arts consists of four areas: the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Academic areas that are associated with the term liberal arts include:



For example, the core courses for Georgetown University's Doctor of Liberal Studies program[28] cover philosophy, theology, history, art, literature, and the social sciences. Wesleyan University's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program includes courses in visual arts, art history, creative and professional writing, literature, history, mathematics, film, government, education, biology, psychology, and astronomy.[29]

Secondary school[edit]

Liberal arts education at the secondary school level prepares students for higher education at a university.[30]


Curricula differ from school to school, but generally include language, chemistry, biology, geography, art, mathematics, music, history, philosophy, civics, social sciences, and foreign languages.[31]

In Asia[edit]

The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines mandates a General Education curriculum required of all higher education institutions; it includes a number of liberal arts subjects, including history, art appreciation, and ethics, plus interdisciplinary electives. Many universities have much more robust liberal arts core curricula; most notably, the Jesuit universities such as Ateneo de Manila University have a strong liberal arts core curriculum that includes philosophy, theology, literature, history, and the social sciences. Forman Christian College is a liberal arts university in Lahore, Pakistan. It is one of the oldest institutions in the Indian subcontinent. It is a chartered university recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Aga Khan University offers a worldclass liberal arts education in the arts and sciences in Karachi, Pakistan, and Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan offers a holistic liberal arts and sciences experience to its students through its uniquely tailored liberal core program which is compulsory for all undergraduate degree students.[60][61]


In India, there are many institutions that offer undergraduate UG or bachelor's degree/diploma and postgraduate PG or master's degree/diploma as well as doctoral PhD and postdoctoral studies and research, in this academic discipline. The highly ranked IIT Guwahati offers a "Master's Degree in Liberal Arts". Manipal Academy of Higher Education – MAHE, an Institution of Eminence as recognised by MHRD of Govt of India in 2018, houses a Faculty of Liberal Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and also others like Symbiosis & FLAME University in Pune, Ahmedabad University, and Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) [62] in Ahmedabad, Ashoka University, and Azim Premji University in Bangalore. Lingnan University, Asian University for Women and University of Liberal Arts- Bangladesh (ULAB) are also a few such liberal arts colleges in Asia. International Christian University in Tokyo is the first and one of the very few liberal arts universities in Japan. Fulbright University Vietnam is the first liberal arts institution in Vietnam.

In Australia[edit]

Campion College is a Roman Catholic dedicated liberal arts college, located in the western suburbs of Sydney. Founded in 2006, it is the first tertiary educational liberal arts college of its type in Australia. Campion offers a Bachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts as its sole undergraduate degree. The key disciplines studied are history, literature, philosophy, and theology.[63]


The Millis Institute is the School of Liberal Arts at Christian Heritage College located in Brisbane. Founded by Dr. Ryan Messmore, former President of Campion College, the Millis Institute offers a Bachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts in which students can choose to major in philosophy, theology, history or literature. It also endorses a 'Study Abroad' program whereby students can earn credit towards their degree by undertaking two units over a five-week program at the University of Oxford. As of 2022, Elizabeth Hillman is currently the President of the Millis Institute.[64]


A new school of Liberal Arts has been formed in the University of Wollongong; the new Arts course entitled 'Western Civilisation' was first offered in 2020. The interdisciplinary curriculum focuses on the classic intellectual and artistic literature of the Western tradition. Courses in the liberal arts have recently been developed at the University of Sydney[65] and the University of Notre Dame.[66]

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"The Virgin Mary and the Classical Liberal Arts"

Tidbury, Iain (5 August 2019). . Liberal Arts. Retrieved 5 August 2019.

"Liberal Arts Education by and for Women"

Tubbs, Nigel (2014). Philosophy and Modern Liberal Arts Education: Freedom is to Learn. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.  978-1-137-35891-2. OCLC 882530818.

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Waddell, Helen (1968). The Wandering Scholars.

Wagner, David Leslie (1983). The Seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages. Indiana University Press.  978-0-253-35185-2.

ISBN

Anders, George (2019). You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a "Useless" Liberal Arts Education. Back Bay Books.  978-0316548885.

ISBN

. The House of Intellect, Reprint Harper Perennial, 2002.

Barzun, Jacques

Blaich, Charles, Anne Bost, Ed Chan, and Richard Lynch. "" Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, 2004.

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. The Uses of a Liberal Education: And Other Talks to Students. (Open Court, 1973. ISBN 0-8126-9429-5)

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Friedlander, Jack. Measuring the Benefits of Liberal Arts Education in Washington's Community Colleges. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Community Colleges, 1982a. (ED 217 918)

and Lisa Jardine. From Humanism to the Humanities: The Institutionalizing of the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-century Europe, Harvard University Press, 1987.

Grafton Anthony

. A Student's Guide to Intellectual Work, The University of Notre Dame Press, 1964.

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. The Art of Teaching, Vintage Books, 1950.

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. The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. Paul Dry Books Inc, 2002.

Joseph, Sister Miriam

Kimball, Bruce A. The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History. University Press Of America, 2010.

T. Kaori Kitao; William R. Kenan, Jr. (27 March 1999). (PDF). Keynote Address, The 1999 Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth's Odyssey at Swarthmore College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2008.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

The Usefulness Of Uselessness

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"What Every Student Should Know"

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The Journal of Higher Education

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The Journal of Higher Education

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The Nature of a Liberal College. Lawrence University Press, 1937.

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Zakaria, Fareed. In Defense of a Liberal Education. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.

. New International Encyclopedia. 1905. Definition and short history of the Seven Liberal Arts from 1905.

"Arts, Liberal" 

Fr. Herve de la Tour, , Edocere, a Resource for Catholic Education, February 2002. Thomas Aquinas's definition of and justification for a liberal arts education.

"The Seven Liberal Arts"

Otto Willmann. . In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. Retrieved 13 August 2012. "[Renaissance] Humanists, over-fond of change, unjustly condemned the system of the seven liberal arts as barbarous. It is no more barbarous than the Gothic style, a name intended to be a reproach. The Gothic, built up on the conception of the old basilica, ancient in origin, yet Christian in character, was misjudged by the Renaissance on account of some excrescences, and obscured by the additions engrafted upon it by modern lack of taste… That the achievements of our forefathers should be understood, recognized, and adapted to our own needs, is surely to be desired."

"The Seven Liberal Arts"

Andrew Chrucky (1 September 2003). . "The content of a liberal education should be moral problems as provided by history, anthropology, sociology, economics, and politics. And these should be discussed along with a reflection on the nature of morality and the nature of discussions, i.e., through a study of rhetoric and logic. Since discussion takes place in language, an effort should be made to develop a facility with language."

"The Aim of Liberal Education"

A bibliography, compiled by Andrew Chrucky, with links to essays offering different points of view on the meaning of a liberal education.

"Philosophy of Liberal Education"

Mark Peltz, , College News (The Annapolis Group), 14 May 2012. A defense of liberal education by the Associate Dean of Grinnell College (first appeared in Inside Higher Ed).

"The Liberal Arts and Leadership"

an ERIC Fact Sheet. ERIC Clearinghouse for Junior Colleges Los Angeles

"Liberal Arts at the Community College"

. ERIC Clearinghouse for Junior Colleges Los Angeles

"A Descriptive Analysis of the Community College Liberal Arts Curriculum"

Website about The Wabash Study (for improving liberal education). Sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College (Indiana), the Wabash Study began in the fall of 2010 – scheduled to end in 2013. Participants include 29 prominent colleges and universities.

The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts.

. An online platform in support of the liberal education community. It is a forum for sharing practices, outcomes, and lessons learned of online learning. Formerly sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, The Academic Commons is hosted by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education ("NITLE".).

Academic Commons

. Website dedicated to "Bridging the gap between business and the liberal arts". "A liberal arts education is aimed at developing the ability to think, reason, analyze, decide, discern, and evaluate. That's in contrast to a professional or technical education (business, engineering, computer science, etc.) which develops specific abilities aimed at preparing students for vocations."

The Liberal Arts Advantage – for Business

. "Liberal arts education (Latin: liberalis, free, and ars, art or principled practice) involves us in thinking philosophically across many subject boundaries in the humanities, the social and natural sciences, and fine arts. The degree combines compulsory modules covering art, religion, literature, science and the history of ideas with a wide range of optional modules. This enables students to have flexibility and control over their programme of study and the content of their assessments."

Video explanation by Professor Nigel Tubbs of liberal arts curriculum and degree requirements of Winchester University, UK.