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Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. Liberal arts takes the term skill in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the . Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally , professional, or technical, as well as religiously based courses.
The term liberal arts for an educational curriculum dates back to classical antiquity in the West, but has changed its meaning considerably, mostly expanding it. The seven subjects in the ancient and medieval meaning came to be divided into the trivium of rhetoric, grammar, and logic, and the quadrivium of astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music. Since the late 1990s, major universities have gradually dropped the term liberal arts from their curriculum or created schools for liberal art disciplines to categorize programs outside of science and technology. Common rebrandings for liberal arts colleges and schools include: arts and , arts and sciences and humanities. The name changing at American institutions comes as the result of modern statistics suggesting a Liberal Arts degree offers graduates a considerably lower income when compared to science and technology graduates. Despite the rebranding, liberal arts degrees from today's universities and colleges traditionally include the following disciplines: Anthropology, English studies, Literature, Fine arts, Foreign languages, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Music, Journalism, Economics, Law, Communications, Architecture, Creative arts, Art, and History. Degrees in Liberal studies are often confused with those in a liberal arts discipline. Liberal studies refers to degrees with a broad curriculum, across multiple liberal arts disciplines and/or sciences and technologies.
Rooted in the basic curriculum – the or "well-rounded education" – of late Classical Greece and Hellenistic Greece, the "liberal arts" or "liberal pursuits" (Latin liberalia studia) were already called so in formal education during the Roman Empire. The first recorded use of the term "liberal arts" (artes liberales) occurs in De Inventione by Marcus Tullius Cicero, but it is unclear if he created the term.Kimball, Bruce (1995). Orators and Philosophers. New York: College Entrance Examination Board. p. 13Cicero. De Inventione. Book 1, Section 35 Seneca the Younger discusses liberal arts in education from a critical Stoicism point of view in Moral Epistles. The exact classification of the liberal arts varied however in Roman times, and it was only after Martianus Capella in the 5th century influentially brought the seven liberal arts as bridesmaids to the De nuptiis, that they took on canonical form.
The four "scientific" artes – music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy – were known from the time of Boethius onwards as the quadrivium. After the 9th century, the remaining three arts of the "humanities" – grammar, logic, and rhetoric – were grouped as the trivium. It was in that two-fold form that the seven liberal arts were studied in the medieval Western university. During the Middle Ages, logic gradually came to take predominance over the other parts of the trivium.
In the 12th century the iconic image – Philosophia et septem artes liberales (Philosophy and seven liberal arts) – was produced by an Alsace nun and abbess Herrad of Landsberg with her community of women as part of the Hortus deliciarum. Their encyclopedia compiled ideas drawn from philosophy, theology, literature, music, arts, and sciences and was intended as a teaching tool for women of the abbey. The image Philosophy and seven liberal arts represents the circle of philosophy, and is presented as a rosette of a cathedral: a central circle and a series of semicircles arranged all around. It shows learning and knowledge organised into seven relations, the Septem Artes Liberales or Seven Liberal Arts. Each of these arts find their source in the Greek φιλοσοφία, philosophia, literally "love of wisdom". St. Albert the Great, a doctor of the Catholic Church, asserted that the seven liberal arts were referred to in Sacred Scripture, saying: "It is written, 'Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars' (Proverbs 9:1). This house is the Blessed Virgin; the seven pillars are the seven liberal arts." '']]
In the Renaissance, the Italian humanists and their Northern counterparts, despite in many respects continuing the traditions of the Middle Ages, reversed that process.G. Norton ed., The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Vol 3 (1999)p. 46 and pp. 601–4 Re-christening the old trivium with a new and more ambitious name: Humanitas]], and also increasing its scope, they downplayed logic as opposed to the traditional Latin grammar and rhetoric, and added to them history, Greek, and moral philosophy (ethics), with a new emphasis on poetry as well.Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965), p. 178. The Humanities spread throughout Europe during the sixteenth century and became the educational foundation for the schooling of European elites, the functionaries of political administration, the clergy of the various legally recognized churches, and the learned professions of law and medicine.Charles G. Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (New Approaches to European History) (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 172–173. The ideal of a liberal arts, or humanistic education grounded in Classics, persisted in Europe until the middle of the twentieth century; in the United States, it had come under increasingly successful attack in the late 19th century by academics interested in reshaping American higher education around the natural and social sciences.Bod, Rens; A New History of the Humanities, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014.Adler, Eric; The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020, p. 59.
Similarly, Wilhelm von Humboldt's educational model in Prussia (now Germany), which later became the role model for higher education also in North America, went beyond vocational training. In a letter to the Prussian king, he wrote:
The philosopher Julian Nida-Rümelin has criticized discrepancies between Humboldt's ideals and the contemporary European education policy, which narrowly understands education as a preparation for the labor market, arguing that we need to decide between "McKinsey and Humboldt".
For example, the core courses for Georgetown University's Doctor of Liberal Studies program cover philosophy, theology, history, art, literature, and the social sciences. Wesleyan University's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program includes courses in visual arts, art history, creative writing and professional writing, literature, history, mathematics, film, government, education, biology, psychology, and astronomy.
Curricula differ from school to school, but generally include language, chemistry, biology, geography, arts, mathematics, music, history, philosophy, civics, , and foreign languages.
In addition, most four-year colleges are not devoted exclusively or primarily to liberal arts degrees, and offer STEM programs. In fact, STEM graduates at liberal arts colleges have been demonstrated to be more likely to apply to graduate school in STEM than their peers and make up a higher proportion of National Academy of Science members than would usually be expected for the number of STEM graduates produced by an institution.
Traditionally, a bachelor's degree in one particular area within liberal arts, with substantial study outside that main area, is earned over four years of full-time study. However, some universities such as Saint Leo University, Pennsylvania State University, Florida Institute of Technology, and New England College have begun to offer an associate degree in liberal arts. Colleges like the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts offer a unique program with only one degree offering, a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, while the Harvard Extension School offers both a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and a Master of Liberal Arts. Additionally, colleges like the University of Oklahoma College of Liberal Studies and the Harvard Extension School offer an online, part-time option for adult and nontraditional students.
Most students earn either a Bachelor of Arts degree or a Bachelor of ScienceFor example, Georgia Institute of Technology's bachelor of science degree in Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies http://www.modlangs.gatech.edu degree.
In 1937 St. John's College radically shifted its curriculum to focus on the Great Books of the Western World, aiming to provide a form of liberal arts education that stood apart from increasingly specialized nature of higher education. This new approach emphasized a broad-based education rooted in classical texts from philosophy, literature, science, and other disciplines, in contrast to the growing trend toward technical and vocational training in universities.
In 1952, Encyclopædia Britannica published a 54 volume set titled the Great Books of the Western World under the direction of Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. This work was designed to serve as a comprehensive anthology of the foundational texts of Western civilization, spanning authors from Homer and Plato to Shakespeare and Newton. The collection aimed to promote critical thinking and engagement with the ideas that have shaped Western thought.
In 1990, a second edition was released, expanding the collection to 60 volumes and updating its content to reflect more contemporary works and scholarship.
Institutions like Zaytuna College in the United States and the Cambridge Muslim College in the United Kingdom have integrated elements of the Great Books and the liberal arts into their educational models, fostering a greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of intellectual traditions across cultures. These colleges encourage students to study classical Islamic texts alongside Western works, fostering a holistic education that draws on both Islamic and Western intellectual heritage. The engagement with the trivium and quadrivium in these institutions highlights the enduring value of liberal arts education, not only in Western contexts but also within broader, more global educational traditions.
Thus, on the level of higher education, despite the European origin of the liberal arts college, the term liberal arts college usually denotes liberal arts colleges in the United States. With the exception of pioneering institutions such as Franklin University Switzerland (formerly known as Franklin College), established as a Europe-based, US-style liberal arts college in 1969, only recently some efforts have been undertaken to systematically "re-import" liberal arts education to continental Europe, as with Leiden University College The Hague, University College Utrecht, University College Maastricht, Amsterdam University College, Roosevelt Academy (now University College Roosevelt), University College Twente (ATLAS), Erasmus University College, the University of Groningen, Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Central European University, and Bard College Berlin, formerly known as the European College of Liberal Arts. Central European University launched a liberal arts undergraduate degree in Culture, Politics, and Society in 2020 as part of its move to Vienna and accreditation in Austria. As well as the colleges listed above, some universities in the Netherlands offer bachelors programs in Liberal Arts and Sciences (Tilburg University). Liberal arts (as a degree program) is just beginning to establish itself in Europe. For example, University College Dublin offers the degree, as does St. Marys University College Belfast, both institutions coincidentally on the island of Ireland. In the Netherlands, universities have opened constituent liberal arts colleges under the terminology university college since the late 1990s. The four-year bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences at University College Freiburg is the first of its kind in Germany. It started in October 2012 with 78 students. The first Liberal Arts degree program in Sweden was established at Gothenburg University in 2011, followed by a Liberal Arts Bachelor Programme at Uppsala University's Campus Gotland in the autumn of 2013. The first Liberal Arts program in Georgia was introduced in 2005 by American-Georgian Initiative for Liberal Education (AGILE), an NGO. Thanks to their collaboration, Ilia State University became the first higher education institution in Georgia to establish a liberal arts program.
In France, Chavagnes Studium, a Liberal Arts Study Centre in partnership with the Institut Catholique d'études supérieures, and based in a former Catholic seminary, is launching a two-year intensive BA in the Liberal Arts, with a distinctively Catholic outlook. It has been suggested that the liberal arts degree may become part of mainstream education provision in the United Kingdom, Ireland and other European countries. In 1999, the European College of Liberal Arts (now Bard College Berlin) was founded in Berlin and in 2009 it introduced a four-year Bachelor of Arts program in Value Studies taught in English, leading to an interdisciplinary degree in the humanities.
In England, the first institution to retrieve and update a liberal arts education at the undergraduate level was the University of Winchester with their BA (Hons) Modern Liberal Arts program which launched in 2010. In 2012, University College London began its interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences BASc degree (which has kinship with the liberal arts model) with 80 students. In 2013, the University of Birmingham created the School of Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences, home of a suite of flexible 4-year programs in which students study a broad range of subjects drawn from across the university, and gain qualifications including both traditional Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences, but also novel thematic combinations linking both areas. King's College London launched the BA Liberal Arts, which has a slant towards arts, humanities and social sciences subjects. The New College of the Humanities also launched a new liberal education programme. Richmond American University London is a private liberal arts university where all undergraduate degrees are taught with a US liberal arts approach over a four-year programme. Durham University has both a popular BA Liberal Arts and a BA Combined Honours in Social Sciences programme, both of which allow for interdisciplinary approaches to education. The University of Nottingham also has a Liberal Arts BA with study abroad options and links with its Natural Sciences degrees. In 2016, the University of Warwick launched a three/four-year liberal arts BA degree, which focuses on transdisciplinary approaches and problem-based learning techniques in addition to providing structured disciplinary routes and bespoke pathways. And for 2017 entry UCAS lists 20 providers of liberal arts programmes.
In Scotland, the four-year undergraduate Honours degree, specifically the Master of Arts, has historically demonstrated considerable breadth in focus. In the first two years of Scottish MA and BA degrees students typically study a number of different subjects before specialising in their Honours years (third and fourth year).
The Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (BISLA), a private institution located in the Old Town of Bratislava, Slovakia, is the first liberal arts college in Central Europe and has been granting three-year degrees since its opening in September 2006.
Forman Christian College is a liberal arts university in Lahore, Pakistan. It is one of the oldest institutions in the Indian subcontinent. It is a chartered university recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Aga Khan University offers a worldclass liberal arts education in the arts and sciences in Karachi, Pakistan, and Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan offers a holistic liberal arts and sciences experience to its students through its uniquely tailored liberal core program which is compulsory for all undergraduate degree students.
In India, there are many institutions that offer undergraduate UG or bachelor's degree/diploma and postgraduate PG or master's degree/diploma as well as doctoral PhD and postdoctoral studies and research, in this academic discipline.
Elsewhere in Asia, Lingnan University in Hong Kong, Asian University for Women and University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh are other liberal arts colleges. International Christian University in Tokyo is the first and one of the very few liberal arts universities in Japan. Fulbright University Vietnam is the first liberal arts institution in Vietnam.
The Millis Institute is the School of Liberal Arts at Christian Heritage College located in Brisbane. Founded by Dr. Ryan Messmore, former President of Campion College, the Millis Institute offers a Bachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts in which students can choose to major in philosophy, theology, history or literature. It also endorses a 'Study Abroad' program whereby students can earn credit towards their degree by undertaking two units over a five-week program at the University of Oxford. As of 2022, Elizabeth Hillman is currently the President of the Millis Institute.
A new school of Liberal Arts has been formed in the University of Wollongong; the new Arts course entitled 'Western Civilisation' was first offered in 2020. The interdisciplinary curriculum focuses on the classic intellectual and artistic literature of the Western culture. Courses in the liberal arts have recently been developed at the University of Sydney and the University of Notre Dame.
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