Beyond The Gates
whose features include:
• A curriculum grounded in the liberal arts
disciplines – the Arts, Humanities, Natural
Sciences, and Social Sciences.
• Smaller class sizes with an emphasis on
collaborative learning.
• A high level of student-teacher interaction at
the center of which are classes taught by full-time
faculty rather than graduate student teaching
assistants.
• Smaller campuses with more attention given to
student life and civic engagement – often about
1,000 to just a few thousand students, with
almost all students living on campus. We refer to
What is a Liberal Arts Education?
In the United States we have come to define liberal
arts education as an approach to learning that
empowers individuals and prepares them to deal
with complexity, diversity, change, and ambiguity
– the very attributes needed now. This approach
emphasizes broad knowledge of the wider world –
science, culture, and society – as well as in-depth
achievement in a specific field of interest.
This approach to higher education also helps
students develop a sense of social responsibility;
strong intellectual and practical skills that span
all major fields of study, such as communication,
analytical and problem-solving skills; and the
demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and
skills in real-world settings. So in a world where
information, ideas and problems know no
borders, a liberal arts education is in demand by
people and orga