To this day, Columbia College maintains one of the most robust liberal arts curricula among the tertiary education landscape, an institutional decision that has been both lauded and denounced by students, professors, and cultural critics alike. As this dissertation examines, high tensions from all angles largely stem from the Core Curriculum's…

Higher education is seeing renewed calls for strengthening ethics education, yet there remains a dearth of research on the state of ethics education across undergraduate curricula. Research about ethics in higher education tends to be localized and often isolated to fields of graduate study. In contribution to a contemporary, landscape…

"Resolving the Crisis in Higher Education: The Key Role of Business Continuity Planning" asks and answers probing questions affecting higher education in the post-COVID-19 educational landscape. The book examines whether private universities, particularly liberal arts colleges, have viable business models and discusses the risk posed by…

Despite declines in the number of liberal arts bachelor's degrees awarded by four-year colleges, the growth in liberal arts at community colleges has made up the difference, countering a national narrative that the field is in crisis. As designated by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, the liberal arts cover a range of…

Every year, millions of students take Advanced Placement (AP) exams hoping to score enough points to earn college credit and save on their tuition bill. But are they getting a real college education? The College Board says that AP classes and exams make the AP program more accessible and represent a step forward for educational justice. But the…

The emergence of the neo-liberal university, rapid changes to the world of work and the unravelling of the Western social contract in an era of fake news and pandemic have created a set of circumstances that define emerging university graduates as members of a global precariat. Several projections of the future world of work suggest a need to…

Liberal arts colleges promise undergraduates a holistic education that builds life-long skills such as critical thinking, written and oral communication, and quantitative and information literacy by encouraging students to engage in courses across the curriculum. Yet too often, we do not offer students enough support in developing coherent…

Two qualitative studies, 2015 and 2020, on seniors' satisfaction with faculty interactions provided the background for this 2023 qualitative study. This present study explored the characteristics and development of the faculty, staff, and student interactions that influenced college student satisfaction. Even though quantitative research showed…

Campus communities continue to become increasingly diverse as the U.S. grows more sensitized to, yet polarized over, issues of social justice. In response, many institutions of higher learning are placing greater emphasis on students' experiential learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in co-curricular experiences such as new…

Mechanisms supporting global learning and global citizenship continue to be incorporated as curricular and co-curricular components of undergraduate education in the United States. Global learning promotes critical thinking and problem-solving and intercultural competency -- skills that studies find are highly prized among employers. However, few…

As a veteran university president of fifteen years, MaryAnn Baenninger has welcomed thousands of prospective students and parents to Saturday recruitment days, however recently she has begun to wonder about the adequacy of recent descriptions of "liberal arts" as an ideal education. National conversations about higher education have…

Critical literature on liberal education since the 1990s discerns two main trends which pose a serious threat to liberal education in the contemporary world. These are, firstly, the trend of liberal arts colleges offering a more professional curriculum and, secondly, the trend among universities and colleges in general to promote values which used…

This study focuses on the place and role of the humanities, especially the liberal arts in emerging economies which rely vastly on the development of national skills and expertise. It is based on one example of a publicly funded university in Oman where the urgency of creating a skilled workforce has led to an exercise in aligning higher education…

An interdisciplinary liberal arts program can prompt innovative ideas and self-discovery when fired in a kiln of social and economic justice fueled by high-impact practices. Developing learning communities, internships, group projects, local-to-global learning, community-based service learning, and capstone projects can enhance education and…

"Honors Colleges in the 21st Century" contains the work of 56 authors representing 45 different institutions, which makes this the largest and most comprehensive group of honors leaders ever to appear in print together discussing honors colleges. Particularly notable is the fact that eleven of the chapters are co-authored by individuals…