Liberal Arts Education: An Overview

Insung Jung (Professors of Education) and Mikiko Nishimura (Senior Associate Professor of Education)

*The academic titles stated above are those held at the time of publication (2017).

[日本語]

---Download eBook--- 

Historical Background

From Europe

The roots of modern liberal arts education lie in late Classical and Hellenistic Greece where the mastery of the liberal arts was considered the ultimate mark of a well-educated person. The four 'scientific' artes - music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (or astrology) - known as the Quadrivium were featured in the formal education of the Roman Empire. After the 9th century, these were joined by the Trivium, the three arts of the 'humanities' (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) to form the seven liberal arts studied in the universities of medieval Europe. During the Renaissance, the Italian humanists and their Northern counterparts renamed the old Trivium Studia humanitatis, downplaying logic and adding history, Greek, and moral philosophy (ethics). The 16th Century saw this curriculum of humanism spread throughout Europe to become the foundation for educating the European elites, political administrators, clergy, and those studying the professions of law and medicine. As van der Wende (2011) observes “The collegiate model, i.e. the smaller-scale college context preferred for the liberal arts experience, had clear historical roots in the early European universities, for example Oxford and Cambridge (p.234).” A liberal arts education was seen as liberating, granting freedom to study and enabling graduates to contribute to civic life.

To the U.S.

This same liberal arts education tradition was then taken up in the US where it has long been a feature of small, private, liberal arts colleges. The first residential liberal arts colleges of Harvard and William and Mary were established in 1636 and 1693 respectively and Yale’s roots go back to the 1640s. Small-scale independent liberal arts colleges continued to develop throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and became the initial force of US higher education. 

The end of the 19th C saw the development of new forms of higher education institutions such as the large-scale public and research universities and technical and vocational schools and as a result, the growth of the small, residential liberal arts colleges decreased (Ferrall, 2011).  However, despite the rising demand for practical, vocational education, several of the oldest, private liberal arts colleges continue to thrive and attract first-class students, achieve high listings in the university rankings and are able to compete with highly-renowned research universities for the best students by adapting and strengthening their offerings in creative and flexible ways in response to the needs and challenges of the 21st century.  Some examples include:

First, even the explicitly committed liberal arts colleges have added vocational degrees to their offerings. Second, many liberal arts colleges have developed various collaborative relationships mainly to: 

• •  share courses (e.g., the Five Colleges Consortium of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst), 

  • achieve economies of scale by means of group purchasing of goods and services (e.g., the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities), 

  • uphold and strengthen the liberal arts tradition by sharing experience, expertise and knowledge and developing and undertaking collaborative programs (e.g., the 13-institution Great Lakes College Association in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio), 

  • provide a forum for member institutions to collaborate and shape dialogue on the nature of higher education and liberal arts education in particular at the national level (e.g., the Annapolis Group, the very first consortium of independent liberal arts colleges), and 

  • work together at the international level (e.g., the Global Liberal Arts Alliance which was established in 2009). 

Back to Europe

De-regulation and the Bologna Process in Europe have contributed to the revival of US liberal arts in the European countries since the 1960s with the founding of three private independent liberal arts colleges: the American University of Paris, the American University of Rome, and the Franklin College of Switzerland. Since then, several other independent colleges and programs have been established within large universities, including the recently founded Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands, and liberal arts programs at University College London and King’s College London in the UK. Unlike independent liberal arts colleges in the US, the majority of those established in Europe since the 1990s are public. 

Now to Asia

While the first encounter with these ideas and methods goes right back to the mid-19th century, the full-scale implementation of the concepts and practices of liberal arts education into East Asian higher education started after the Pax Americana following World War II. ICU is one of the pioneering liberal arts colleges in East Asia, founded in 1953. Nevertheless, from the mid-1990s onwards, “international” liberal arts programs were being offered in English language in East Asia, particularly in Japan and China. As Godwin (2015) shows, this became part of worldwide emergence of liberal education extending from Asia to Europe. It has been introduced into Asia’s traditional higher education system with the aims of providing a more well-rounded education, individualized, small-group, active and experiential learning, interdisciplinary or convergent courses, and an internationalized curriculum (Lewis, 2012). 

In East Asian countries, particularly in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, higher education is showing an increased interest in liberal arts education and these countries have also seen the establishment of small, independent dedicated liberal arts colleges and general education programs. Some well-known, small-scale independent liberal arts colleges in Asia with different historical backgrounds include: International Christian University and Miyazaki International College (Japan), Handong Global University (S. Korea), Lingnan University (Hong Kong China), Yale-NUS College (Singapore), Flame University (India), and Asian University for Women (Bangladesh). 

Concepts of Liberal Arts Education

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU, n.d.) defines liberal arts education as “an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change [and provides] students with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g. science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest.” 

In general, three key values are considered essential in liberal arts education as argued in Chopp (2014). 

• • critical thinking which involves analyzing phenomena, asking difficult questions and formulating possible answers, developing logical, well-evidenced arguments, and evaluating and refining these answers and arguments. To develop critical thinking skills, liberal arts education emphasizes the importance of small group discussions and debates and study in the broad contexts of literature, languages, history, music, arts, philosophy, psychology, mathematics and the sciences.

  • moral and civil character which involves developing moral habits and good citizenship in students by means of extra-curricular and community-based activities, student-student and faculty-student interaction, and on-campus residential experiences. 

  • using knowledge to improve the world or service to the world by encouraging students to explore interrelationships within their majors and other courses and between their on-campus and off-campus experiences and to reflect on the wider social and global contexts of their learning. They are expected to work cooperatively in teams or with people from different disciplines or cultures and to discuss and resolve issues from diverse perspectives. 

Besides these principles, curiosity, creativity, critical self-reflection, a sense of social responsibility and communication skills have been emphasized in liberal arts education.

Importance of Liberal Arts Education in the Knowledge Society

We live in an increasingly complex and interconnected, knowledge society. The further development of the knowledge society wherein knowledge and education are perceived as a productive asset has become a national priority for many countries around the world. It has become more critical than before that universities develop foundational knowledge and skills in their students and cultivate them as leaders who can see the big picture with profound comprehension in more than just one specialized area, and who can make sound decisions in society. In this regard, a liberal arts education is practical in today’s society. For liberal arts education in the 21st Century, visit this AACU (Association of American Colleges and Universities) website. 

The more enlightened and more forward-looking business leaders increasingly recognize that they can provide the specialized professional training themselves, and that they need graduates with the range of adaptable skills that liberal arts institutions traditionally champion: creativity, flexibility, critical thinking, strong communication and problem analysis and solving skills and mindsets that allow them to work in different cultural contexts and in a broad range of issues and disciplines. AACU’s National Surveys of Business and Nonprofit Leaders and Current College Students reveal that “nearly all employers (91 percent) agree that for career success, a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than his or her undergraduate major.” (For details, read Employer Survey & Economic Trend Research. 

Doing Liberal Arts Education at ICU

As Japan’s first and perhaps most prominent liberal arts university, ICU’s foremost educational principle has been that “liberal arts shall be the basis for all activities at ICU.”  But what does this mean both in theory and in practice? 

The theory is relatively straightforward, if lofty. From the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance to 19th-century thinkers such as Emerson to 20th-century college presidents such as Harvard’s James Conant,  the liberal arts have been associated with—in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities—critical thinking, democratic citizenship, problem-solving, free exchange of ideas, learning across disciplinary boundaries, and knowledge for its own sake. 

ICU has articulately—and continually—defined its own view of liberal arts, advanced its own self-definition as a liberal arts university, and set forth the institutional scope of the liberal arts as it conceives them. 

• • In the most recent version of the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts: “International Christian University was established to advance truth and enhance freedom. It is our conviction that all humanity gains from the discovery, acquisition, testing, and proving of knowledge.” 

  • In the first full printed edition of the ICU Bulletin in 1953: The “purpose of the Liberal Arts College of ICU” is to create citizens who “will acquire and use the skills and habits involved in critical thinking and will develop intellectual curiosity which challenges [them] constantly to seek new answers to new problems.” 

  • In the openings of “The College of Liberal Arts” from the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts for decades: ICU aims to develop “adventurous minds capable of critical thinking and sensitive to questions of meaning and value.”

But practically speaking, what does this mean? And how does one actually “do liberal arts”?

While the spirit of liberal arts education can be detected in all aspects of ICU’s educational and social activities, it is most firmly integrated in ICU’s general education curriculum, bilingual programs, and recent globalization projects.

General education as a core of liberal arts education

ICU is now one of few universities in Japan where it is mandatory for all full-time faculty members to teach at least one general education (GE) course in accord with the traditions of liberal arts education. This is because of the strongly held belief at ICU that general education is the key to developing a sense of citizenship and critical thinking from different perspectives. The statement by Kinukawa (1995), a former president of ICU, that “the collapse of general education overlaps the collapse of post-war democracy” (p.37) echoes this belief. 

In 2008, ICU transformed its specialized area-based six division system into one division of liberal arts and science with 31 majors. The students are not required to decide upon their specialized major area until the end of their second year. These reforms have demonstrated ICU’s “doing liberal arts” slogan and conviction that general problem-based learning rather than discipline-based education is what enables students to become active and responsible members of society (Kinukawa, 2002; Steele, 2005).

As of 2016, ICU offers 75 GE courses in Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. ICU’s GE courses are flexible; students choose fields of study according to their personal interests, master the basic concepts of these fields before committing to their major and then make connections between their major and other fields of study.

Another important feature of ICU’s general education lies in its admission policy and general entrance exam. ICU uses the Aptitude Test for Liberal ArtS (ATLAS) and an English test for all applicants and grants a choice of humanities and social science (HSS) or natural science (NS) study. ICU’s entrance exam attempts to assess a student’s potential for liberal arts education in terms of their generic aptitudes rather than their mastery of high school subject-based knowledge and effort derived from rote learning. ICU’s admission policy clearly states the four qualities sought in freshmen: intellectual curiosity and creativity that transcend disciplinary boundaries; sound judgement based on logical and critical thinking; communication skills necessary for dialogue with people from other cultural and linguistic backgrounds; and self-motivation and the ability to identify, solve, and engage with real-world problems (ICU, 2015). 

Bilingualism and beyond

ICU regards bilingualism as one of its most important goals. It is this that enables individuals to engage in open dialogue with people from various backgrounds, broaden their perspectives, and question their ways of thinking and behaving. Unlike other Japanese universities, ICU requires all students, regardless of nationality, to learn Japanese or English in accordance with their language proficiency in the first year. In their later studies, several courses are taught both in Japanese and English so that the students are required to think critically and exchange ideas in both languages.

The one-year English for Liberal Arts (ELA) course for the freshmen includes academic reading and writing, reading and content analysis, academic skills, research skills and research writing. The ELA also covers topics drawn from the different disciplines to accustom the students to learning in English in the various fields they will follow from the second year onwards. It is a requirement not only to improve the students’ English language skills but develop the critical thinking and study/research skills necessary to be successful at ICU. In this program, the students read articles on current affairs and other controversial topics and share their opinions and ideas through presentations, group discussion and research papers entirely in English.

The students are also encouraged to learn other world languages. ICU currently offers such language courses as Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. Students can also study other languages with allied universities and through credit exchange programs.

Globalization

ICU has long been concerned with internationalizing the curriculum and developing a multicultural community of students and faculty. Today, one tenth of its students come from around 40 overseas countries and one third of its faculty members come from 20 or so countries. ICU operates an international service learning program in which students earn credits by serving as overseas volunteers in various fields. It also partners with overseas institutions in managing exchange programs, the numbers of which have increased from 49 in 2004 to 68 in 2015. About 450 students study abroad annually, about a quarter of whom are exchange students. 

ICU has implemented a few major global initiatives since the 2010s. In 2012, ICU was selected to implement the Japanese government’s Global Human Resource Development Project. ICU has been implementing three programs concerned with improving English proficiency; developing academic writing skills in English; and advancing credit-bearing study abroad. In 2014, ICU became one of the 37 top global universities in Japan that were strengthening their commitment to internationalizing Japanese higher education. Three initiatives include 1) the flexible language programs suited to the diverse needs of the students regardless of the time of entry; 2) the establishment of a Center for Teaching and Learning to cater to students’ diverse learning abilities and needs; and 3) collaborative programs with other universities to offer global first-tier liberal arts education. 

ICU is the only Japanese member-university of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance, an international, multilateral partnership of American-style liberal arts institutions which has the goal of supporting excellence in liberal arts education on a transnational basis and seeks to serve as a beacon for educational leaders, faculty members and administrators and exchange knowledge, expertise and experience among institutions committed to education in the tradition of the liberal arts and sciences (GLAA, n.d.). 

Classroom pedagogy

Liberal arts education involves shifting instruction away from transmission and information-driven models (such as memorizing materials that will be on the test, as practiced by Japanese high school students) to: 

• • a curiosity and question-driven education, 

  • designing courses around issues rather than content, 

  • creating community in the classroom

  • focusing instruction on questions and inquiry rather than answers and established facts,

  • building in not only acquisition but also application of concepts learned in a course, such as through analysis, interpretation, or fieldwork

Among the “best practices” that enact these principles and which are common to liberal arts courses at ICU are the following:

• • Assignments which stimulate students’ curiosity and inspire them to do some personal and primary research, even if on a small or provisional scale (e.g., observations, surveys, experiments, fieldwork)

  • Classroom activities that enable the student to extend and share their learning rather than offering one-way lectures by the professor (e.g., small or large group presentations, peer tutoring sessions)

  • Writing to make arguments or present original ideas rather than writing to summarize information or report facts

  • Course readings which present multiple viewpoints on a given issue rather than using a textbook or limited number of readings that present a reductive or monolithic perspective

  • Tasks which challenge students to consider solutions to real world problems (e.g., income inequality, gender discrimination, resource depletion, species extinction, barriers to intercultural communication, digital divide, media bias, etc.)

  • Recognition of the student’s effort for active questioning, participating in the process of inquiry, exploring solutions from diverse perspectives, and exploring original ideas (e.g., by giving credit for those activities) 

  • Incorporating into coursework some contemporary forms of communication that can extend beyond classroom or disciplinary boundaries, such as blogs, videos, and online collaborative writing

Doing liberal arts at ICU seeks to foster learning which applies the contents of courses, attempts to arouse curiosity, tends to be project or issue-based, encourages primary research and personal inquiry, possibly crosses disciplinary boundaries, and is potentially transformational. 

Acknowledgement

Parts of this section were developed based on Chapters 1 and 5 in Jung, I.S., Nishimura, M., & Sasao, T. (Eds.), Liberal arts education and colleges in East Asia. Springer. http://www.springer.com/jp/book/9789811005114  (Permitted under publishing agreement)

References

Ferrall, V. E. (2011). Liberal arts at the brink. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 

Godwin, K. A. (2015). The worldwide emergence of liberal education. International Higher Education, 79, 2-4

International Christian University (ICU). (2015). Admissions policy. Retrieved from http://www.icu.ac.jp/en/admissions/september/policy/index.html

Kinukawa, M. (1995). The essence of university education. Tokyo, Japan: U-LEAG. [in Japanese]

Kinukawa, M. (Ed.). (2002). All about ICU’s <Liberal Arts>. Liberal Arts Education Reform Document Series 2. Tokyo, Japan: Toshindo Publishing Co. Ltd. [in Japanese]

Lewis, P. (2012). In Asia, Future appears bright for liberal-arts education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/in-asiafuture-appears-bright-for-liberal-arts-education/30840. 

Steele, W. M. (2005). Back to Fundamentals: Liberal Education in Changing Times. In C. Hahm, & J. Mo (Eds.), The Challenge of East Asian Liberal Arts Education (pp.27-39). Seoul, Korea: Underwood International College, Yonsei University.

van der Wende, M. C. (2011). The emergence of liberal arts and sciences education in Europe: A comparative perspective. Higher Education Policy, 24, 233–253.