A recent survey of chief executive officers by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that 74% believed that graduates from liberal arts degrees were better prepared for successful business careers than those with technical degrees. There was a general acknowledgment that liberal arts graduates have been trained to think clearly, solve problems and sell their ideas with good communication skills – all prerequisites for advancement in a rapidly changing workplace where technical skills are quickly outdated. At the same time, the rising cost of a university education and a belief that so-called STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are the best passport into high-paying jobs in the knowledge economy have driven students away from liberal arts into the vocational and technical disciplines where the payback on investment seems more obvious. The most recent OECD report, ‘Education at a Glance 2017’, concludes that ‘STEM-related fields…benefit from higher employment rates, reflecting the demands of an increasingly innovation-driven society’. University league tables are fashionable because they sell newspapers and influence student choice. They rank universities using quantitative measures of variables presumed to indicate ‘quality’: average citations per faculty member, faculty-student ratio, percentage of international students and faculty, etc. A liberal arts league table which uses the same variables to rank a ‘club’ of designated liberal arts universities is a pointless vanity. However, if the liberal arts universities were ranked on the basis of the creativity of their faculty and graduates, then such a league table might drive the same quality improvements in the liberal arts that research-based league tables have driven in technical universities.

1. Striking the balance between technical and
liberal arts education: will a liberal arts
league table help or hinder?
Professor Nigel Healey
nigel.healey@fnu.ac.fj
20 November 2017

2. Overview
§ The case for liberal arts education
§ The case for STEM
§ Trends in higher education: from liberal arts to
STEM
§ What are university league tables for?
§ A liberal arts league table as pointless vanity
§ A liberal arts league table to drive greater
creativity amongst faculty and graduates
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3. The case for liberal arts education
— Association of American Colleges and Universities
survey
— 74% of CEOs believed that graduates from liberal
arts degrees were better prepared for successful
business careers than those with technical degrees
— Liberal arts graduates think clearly, solve problems
and sell their ideas with good communication skills
— Technical skills date very quickly - employees have
to constantly change jobs and reskill.
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4. The case for STEM
— ‘Interest in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) grows with higher levels of education,
with almost double the share of students graduating from
these fields at doctoral level than at bachelor’s level.
— STEM-related fields…benefit from higher employment rates,
reflecting the demands of an increasingly innovation-driven
society.
— Information and communication technologies (ICT)
graduates can expect an employment rate that is 7% higher
than those graduating from arts and humanities, or from
social sciences, journalism and information.’
Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2017
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5. The case for STEM: % of the population
with tertiary education by age group
5
Brazil
Korea
Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2011

6. The case for STEM: higher education
leads to economic growth
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Source: Penn World Tables 6.3
Per capita GDP US$ 2005
prices

7. The growth of STEM in New Zealand
(Source: Ministry of Education)
7
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
12.0%
14.0%
16.0%
18.0%
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
STEM graduates as % of total
Natural and Physical Sciences Information Technology Engineering Health Sciences

8. The decline of liberal arts in New
Zealand (Source: Ministry of Education)
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0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Liberal Arts graduates as % of total
Education Management and Commerce Society and Culture Creative Arts

9. What are university league tables for?
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10. Measuring the ‘quality’ of universities
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Liberal arts universities will never score highly on these metrics

11. A liberal arts league table as pointless
vanity
— There are many league tables for different
‘clubs’:
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A league table of liberal
arts universities that uses
the same indicators
amounts to being in the
Championship, not the
Premier League

12. What are liberal arts universities for?
— To train young minds
— To produce creative, innovative thinkers who
can problem-solve drawing from different
disciplines
— To produce great negotiators and
communicators
— To contribute to the creative arts
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13. A liberal arts league table should rank
creativity and innovation
— Possible indicators
— Diversity of students and faculty (ethnicity,
religion, sexual orientation, income)
— Live performances per faculty member or per
student
— Income and position of graduates after 20 years
— Patents and inventions per graduate after 20
years
— Remember: league tables drive behaviour –
ensure that a liberal arts league table drives
creativity
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14. Which? Most creative university:
Falmouth University
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15. Conclusions
— Business and society value the outputs of liberal
arts – creativity, innovation, communication
— Governments and students associate success
with technical education
— We don’t need another Championship league
— A liberal arts league that measures creativity
could drive real quality improvements
nigel.healey@fnu.ac.fj
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