Against all odds? The enduring value of liberal education in universities, professions and the labour market

Abstract

The concept of liberal education is filled with paradox. It is at once the most enduring and changeable of academic traditions. It owes its origins to the philosophers and teaching practices of Ancient Greece and, arguably, continues to embrace certain core values from that era. According to Vanderleest (1996), these include the development of the whole person, the cultivation of character and citizenship, and the achievement in learning and living of balance and harmony (see also, Rothblatt, 1993). But there have been, and remain, different approaches to achieving these ends. While some liberal educators have stressed a "classical philosophic tradition" which steeps the student in ancient and biblical texts, others have embraced the "humanistic" perspective, which, largely through literature, exposes readers to the breadth of human experience and accomplishment, seeking, thereby to "fit" the individual for "freedom" Yet another facet of liberal education is that which employs the "scientific method" through which research specialists are trained to discover new knowledge. Finally, the "twentieth century pragmatic vision" encourages students to treat all claims to truth skeptically, to problem-solve, and to attempt to make education an instrument of social change and the social good (Glyer & Weeks, 1998; Rothblatt, 1993).

Another medical school initiative flowed from a resolution at the World Summit on Medical Education in 1993 which called upon medical education to become more "community oriented" to focus students' attention on "real world settings," and to encourage them to "respond to the needs of society" (Wasylenki et al., 1997). This led to a new course, now compulsory for University of Toronto medical students, called "Health, Illness and the Community." The course requires students in first and second year to spend one half-day per week working in placements that involve some 300 community agencies and to explore the issues arising from their experiences. Students first observe patients in their residences in order to understand better how "people cope with illness and disability in the home environment." They then spend time at a public health unit where they are exposed to such issues as "domestic violence, sexually transmitted diseases and smoking cessation." This is followed by a section in the course on "health determinants and health promotion strategies," and includes two agency placements which address these themes. In their second year, students focus on the "inter-connection between a health problem and a social issue." Coordination between community agencies and teaching hospitals enable students to grapple directly with the medical and social elements of the issues they are investigating. Throughout the two-year course, students are exposed to a variety of readings from social science fields.

</para><para>Table 3 shows that university graduates in 1996 were far more successful in entering either professional or managerial occupations whether they concentrated their studies in liberal arts or other fields of study. Thus, in examining those who were in the 25-29 year old cohort in 1996, we found that the highest proportion of non-university graduates obtaining professional/managerial positions were postsecondary and diploma graduates (26.2%), with gender variations being negligible for this group. In contrast, the range across all fields of study among university graduates in the same age cohort was 46.9% (Humanities) and 88.4% (other health professions). The magnitude of these differences was maintained when we inspected the 30 year and up category. Among liberal education graduates in the 25-29 age cohort, there was some variation in the proportion of professional/managerial ranging from 46.9% for humanities graduates to 56.3% for fine arts graduates. Gender variations within these fields of study were small except in the instance of fine arts where there was a 6.4% difference in favour of men. Generally speaking, however, occupational outcomes favoured graduates from non-liberal education fields for those in the 25-29 year old cohort, though there was a very strong variation ranging from 50.4% for commerce graduates to 88.4% for other health professions. With respect to university graduates in the 30 and up cohort, graduates in all fields appear to have improved their employment prospects and increased their representation in professional/managerial occupations. This improvement appeared especially strong for those in liberal education fields. Thus, fine arts graduates increased their profile by 14.8% to 71.1%; humanities graduates enhanced their representation by 20.8%, to 67.7% and social science graduates showed similar gains in representation, increasing from 49.0% to 68.7%.