Liberal Arts degrees

[user1499173618]

Are these of any real educational value? Will they be attractive to employers? Or are they just a sort of extended summer school for DC who don’t know what to study?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education

I wasn't sure what 'Liberal arts' meant, so I Googled it. Sounds pretty good to me.

Depends where the course is - at a prestigious University it will have some merit.

No real educational value though - being taught how (and in some cases what) to think really.

DC don't have to study - wish I hadn't. Complete waste of time and money but New Labour wanted EVERYONE to go to university and my parents wanted me to.

Better off working and learning how to communicate with employers/co-workers etc. Real world isn't going anywhere and I think the sooner 18 year olds begin to live in it the better they will be.

I just wonder if the recent spate of Liberal Arts degrees aren’t just designed to fill universities’ coffers.

Recent spate? Have you read the Wikipedia entry?

There has been a recent (within last decade) spate of Liberal Arts degree courses opening in the UK.

It depends what grads do afterwards and whether they are competitive in the jobs market. Depends what you think value means too.

Many grads are well prepared for work and are better educated and have greater skills than an 18 year old. Some degrees are obviously not particularly well regarded but if DC want a top grad scheme afterwards, I would check if liberal arts grads achieve these. If you want these subjects and degree structure, and cannot choose one or two subjects, then it’s the right decision.

We talked to a member of staff at DD's school about this. Apparently abroad they are highly regarded as they like a broad range of subjects to be educated. Liberal Arts might not be the degree to walk into a specialised field, but it will show a potential employer you have certain skills, work hard and are able to learn.

“Abroad” is a fairly wide concept...

Employers may well value them “abroad” and be very used to the concept, but if DD isn’t working abroad where these degrees are the norm, then what is the value here? That’s the real question. What do our grads do? University staff say all sorts of things to get bums on seats, but where is the evidence?

Few arts degrees specifically lead to jobs. Eg English, History, Philosophy, MFL, Politics, Psychology, Classics, Sociology, Anthrapology, Law, Geography etc all produce grads who won’t specifically work in an area that uses their degrees. The Liberal Arts grad will probably compete with them for jobs. Are they better placed to do so or not? If they are just the same (or even less desirable if they don’t have a language or a degree from Oxbridge) then could the student put themselves in a better position by choosing a different degree? If there is no job in mind, then study what you wish but there is stiff competition for the best grad schemes.

In the particular version of “abroad” where I live, a Liberal Arts degree is an entirely foreign concept. I cannot see any employer embracing a Liberal Arts degree from an overseas university unless it had been very specifically tailored to a career plan, with complementary work experience and internships.