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Report Highlights the Decline of Liberal Arts Institutions
By Catherine Groux
Posted October 11, 2012 10:00 AM
More schools are turning away from their liberal arts traditions.A new study by Michigan State University (MSU) researchers shows that while 212 liberal arts colleges existed in 1990, only 130 of these institutions remain in their traditional form. Throughout their long history, liberal arts schools have become known for their emphasis on science and the arts, as well as their traditionally small class sizes and focus on students and teacher development.
While liberal arts colleges have recently come under fire for not giving students a clear path to a job after graduation, Roger Baldwin, an MSU professor of educational administration, said it would greatly harm the higher education system if these institutions died.
"The diversity of U.S. higher education is widely regarded as one of its strengths," Baldwin said. "But American higher education will be diminished if the number of liberal arts colleges continues to decline."
Many of these historically liberal arts colleges have changed to become more career oriented, the report states. While they once gave students a broad understanding of topics like history, chemistry, philosophy and English, they now train individuals for professional fields like business and nursing.
However, the report argues that liberal arts schools must be revived before they vanish altogether.
"We should renew and reinvigorate these valuable institutions before liberal arts colleges disappear from the higher education landscape or shrink to the status of a minor educational enclave that serves only the elite," the authors wrote.
