.
The liberal arts college model is, if you listen to the many American critics of higher education, dying: The costs are too high, they say; the value proposition is too weak. Liberal arts colleges have been defined in many different ways, and over time, considerable change has taken place to their missions and operations. What it usually means now is that, unlike higher education models throughout most of the rest of the world, students are not expected to work directly toward their career goals; rather, they should be exposed to a broad range of subjects, explore academic interests openly, and eventually specialize in a subject that allows them to develop analytic skills in ways that are not tied exclusively to a particular occupation. In that sense, liberal arts colleges claim that they develop holistic citizens rather than just employees. They often also compete with an increasingly culturally based career-focused mentality by asserting that they prepare students for their last jobs, not their first; in other words, they aim to prepare leaders and lifelong learners.
And in fact, many of the great leaders of the US, in politics, business, science, and so forth, were graduates of liberal arts colleges. Despite the rising costs, many Americans still believe strongly in the philosophies that underpin the model. But because of the costs, and the associated public criticisms, as well as an increasing anxiety about employment and job skills, the liberal arts model in the US, though not necessarily dying, is struggling. Some of the traditional liberal arts colleges are losing enrollments or are having to work harder to attract good (and full tuition-paying) students; a few have said that they may have to close entirely or merge with other colleges in order to survive.
Looking outside the US, however, we see a completely different story. The liberal arts college model is growing rapidly. From American universities abroad, to homegrown liberal arts colleges, to university college models developed in large historic European universities, the rest of the world has recognized the power and potential of this approach to higher education.
The two most famous of these institutions, the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo (AUB and AUC, respectively), are the historic American universities abroad, founded by Presbyterian missionaries who made a practice of opening schools throughout the Middle East and Africa in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Over time, both institutions developed into comprehensive liberal arts universities, attaining accreditation in the US, and maintaining an American-style governance process, complete with faculty tenure practices that are modeled on US institutions. To ensure that the culture of liberal arts is embedded deeply in these universities, many faculty members are either American or attained their terminal degrees in the US; the two universities also send many of their students to the US on study abroad semesters. A significant number of their research projects involve collaborations with universities and researchers in the US. As a result, both institutions have become the top, and most elite, universities of their respective countries.
Based on the success of these two universities, other American universities have been created abroad: Paris, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Rome, Greece, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Kuwait, the Emirates, and beyond. While some of these are still working to attain accreditation in the US, and others have rapidly become globally recognized universities, what they all have in common is the desire to provide a liberal arts curriculum to students in locations outside the US—in other words, to bring the American-style model of higher education to the rest of the world. Indeed, some of them, like AUC and AUB, have adapted to the local market of students, adding professional programs in engineering, business, journalism, medicine, and so forth. Yet they retain the core values of the liberal arts: encouragement of academic exploration, focus on close student-teacher interaction, rejection of simplistic pedagogies of lecture and memorization, and reinforcement of holistic citizenship and intellectual development. The “American” label can thus be misleading. None of these universities have association with the US, though they may be accredited in the US. Rather, the “American” label is a brand—a signal of quality higher education, modeled on the universities that have been perceived to be among the best in the world for well over a century.
In addition to these universities, home-grown liberal arts colleges have opened around the world: from Lingnan University in Hong Kong to Ashesi University in Ghana, the liberal arts model has been adapted to particular cultures based on local markets and distinct beliefs. In the Netherlands, old and famous public institutions, such as the Universities of Utrecht and Leiden, have recently developed honors colleges that provide a liberal arts style education. These universities have proven that diversity of institutional type can be beneficial to the wide-ranging needs of students, labor markets, and national objectives.
Considering, in particular, the American University in Cairo, beyond the benefits that the university has provided to its students over the years, does the university have any impact on the relationship between the US and Egypt? Aside from the obvious connections made through research collaborations, as well as increased academic mobility between the two countries, I contend that the university serves as a symbol of the very values that have made the United States the envied country that it is today. American politicians might speak about democracy and freedom, for example, but the liberal arts model shows us, more specifically, that these two abstract qualities are the product of other more tangible qualities, such as curiosity, candidness, tolerance, empathy, and diligence. Indeed, the US is not the purveyor of these characteristics, nor do all Americans display them frequently—or ever. And certainly, they are not always present at even the best liberal arts universities. But they are the ends that such universities aim to achieve—more so than career readiness, discrete job skills, achievement outcomes, quality rankings, and so forth.
The missionaries who founded AUC and AUB did not, as many other missionaries of the time did, seek to convert people to Christianity; instead, they desired to show their values through the institutions they created. They believed that without a robust education, people would not be able to think for themselves and realize the prospects of self-governance. The exportation of the liberal arts model today purports the very same thing. And thus, it is through a university like AUC that Egyptians can see what the US is and aspires to be. Conversely, it is an institution through which Americans can better understand Egypt. The American model of higher education, as the critics in the US contend, is not dying; it is alive, growing, and spreading. And it is, and has proven over time, to be a force for good in the world.
Ted Purinton is Dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE) at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Dr. Purinton came to AUC in 2011 from National Louis University in Chicago to help start the GSE as an incubator of educational reform for the Middle East.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
a global affairs media network
How One University Connects Two Countries
Background from arabesque design inside dome of Sheikh Lutfollah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.
September 23, 2015
The liberal arts college model is, if you listen to the many American critics of higher education, dying: The costs are too high, they say; the value proposition is too weak. Liberal arts colleges have been defined in many different ways, and over time, considerable change has taken place to their missions and operations. What it usually means now is that, unlike higher education models throughout most of the rest of the world, students are not expected to work directly toward their career goals; rather, they should be exposed to a broad range of subjects, explore academic interests openly, and eventually specialize in a subject that allows them to develop analytic skills in ways that are not tied exclusively to a particular occupation. In that sense, liberal arts colleges claim that they develop holistic citizens rather than just employees. They often also compete with an increasingly culturally based career-focused mentality by asserting that they prepare students for their last jobs, not their first; in other words, they aim to prepare leaders and lifelong learners.
And in fact, many of the great leaders of the US, in politics, business, science, and so forth, were graduates of liberal arts colleges. Despite the rising costs, many Americans still believe strongly in the philosophies that underpin the model. But because of the costs, and the associated public criticisms, as well as an increasing anxiety about employment and job skills, the liberal arts model in the US, though not necessarily dying, is struggling. Some of the traditional liberal arts colleges are losing enrollments or are having to work harder to attract good (and full tuition-paying) students; a few have said that they may have to close entirely or merge with other colleges in order to survive.
Looking outside the US, however, we see a completely different story. The liberal arts college model is growing rapidly. From American universities abroad, to homegrown liberal arts colleges, to university college models developed in large historic European universities, the rest of the world has recognized the power and potential of this approach to higher education.
The two most famous of these institutions, the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo (AUB and AUC, respectively), are the historic American universities abroad, founded by Presbyterian missionaries who made a practice of opening schools throughout the Middle East and Africa in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Over time, both institutions developed into comprehensive liberal arts universities, attaining accreditation in the US, and maintaining an American-style governance process, complete with faculty tenure practices that are modeled on US institutions. To ensure that the culture of liberal arts is embedded deeply in these universities, many faculty members are either American or attained their terminal degrees in the US; the two universities also send many of their students to the US on study abroad semesters. A significant number of their research projects involve collaborations with universities and researchers in the US. As a result, both institutions have become the top, and most elite, universities of their respective countries.
Based on the success of these two universities, other American universities have been created abroad: Paris, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Rome, Greece, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Kuwait, the Emirates, and beyond. While some of these are still working to attain accreditation in the US, and others have rapidly become globally recognized universities, what they all have in common is the desire to provide a liberal arts curriculum to students in locations outside the US—in other words, to bring the American-style model of higher education to the rest of the world. Indeed, some of them, like AUC and AUB, have adapted to the local market of students, adding professional programs in engineering, business, journalism, medicine, and so forth. Yet they retain the core values of the liberal arts: encouragement of academic exploration, focus on close student-teacher interaction, rejection of simplistic pedagogies of lecture and memorization, and reinforcement of holistic citizenship and intellectual development. The “American” label can thus be misleading. None of these universities have association with the US, though they may be accredited in the US. Rather, the “American” label is a brand—a signal of quality higher education, modeled on the universities that have been perceived to be among the best in the world for well over a century.
In addition to these universities, home-grown liberal arts colleges have opened around the world: from Lingnan University in Hong Kong to Ashesi University in Ghana, the liberal arts model has been adapted to particular cultures based on local markets and distinct beliefs. In the Netherlands, old and famous public institutions, such as the Universities of Utrecht and Leiden, have recently developed honors colleges that provide a liberal arts style education. These universities have proven that diversity of institutional type can be beneficial to the wide-ranging needs of students, labor markets, and national objectives.
Considering, in particular, the American University in Cairo, beyond the benefits that the university has provided to its students over the years, does the university have any impact on the relationship between the US and Egypt? Aside from the obvious connections made through research collaborations, as well as increased academic mobility between the two countries, I contend that the university serves as a symbol of the very values that have made the United States the envied country that it is today. American politicians might speak about democracy and freedom, for example, but the liberal arts model shows us, more specifically, that these two abstract qualities are the product of other more tangible qualities, such as curiosity, candidness, tolerance, empathy, and diligence. Indeed, the US is not the purveyor of these characteristics, nor do all Americans display them frequently—or ever. And certainly, they are not always present at even the best liberal arts universities. But they are the ends that such universities aim to achieve—more so than career readiness, discrete job skills, achievement outcomes, quality rankings, and so forth.
The missionaries who founded AUC and AUB did not, as many other missionaries of the time did, seek to convert people to Christianity; instead, they desired to show their values through the institutions they created. They believed that without a robust education, people would not be able to think for themselves and realize the prospects of self-governance. The exportation of the liberal arts model today purports the very same thing. And thus, it is through a university like AUC that Egyptians can see what the US is and aspires to be. Conversely, it is an institution through which Americans can better understand Egypt. The American model of higher education, as the critics in the US contend, is not dying; it is alive, growing, and spreading. And it is, and has proven over time, to be a force for good in the world.
Ted Purinton is Dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE) at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Dr. Purinton came to AUC in 2011 from National Louis University in Chicago to help start the GSE as an incubator of educational reform for the Middle East.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
