Liberal arts: the degree of the decade?

Introducing degrees in liberal arts into UK universities could produce graduates with better all-round skills, increasingly valuable in today's competitive job market, according to Edinburgh Napier University and University College London.
 
Liberal arts degrees let students pick different subject areas throughout their course of study, which is said to offer them a broader range of skills, attractive to graduate employers.
 
Degrees such as liberal arts are becoming increasingly popular as universities choose to alter more classical courses in attempt to combine the benefits of classical degrees with the appeal of vocational education.
 
Dr Jenny Rice, Vice-principal at Edinburgh Napier, acknowledges the potential of a degree aiming to educate students in traditional disciplines as well as giving them to edge of vocational experience.
 
Speaking to The Journal, Dr Rice said: "Edinburgh Napier University’s flexible programme structures allow students to combine subjects within and beyond liberal arts and we encourage students on every degree programme to consider options, such as languages or enterprise, to broaden their education and their employability. 
 
“We have, for example, recently built on long-established and successful programmes such as Journalism to develop degrees with English at their heart, but with obvious applicability in fields as varied as journalism and screen-writing.”
 
In the UK, undergraduate degrees in liberal arts are only available at the University of Glasgow, the University of Winchester, Durham University and the University of Belfast.
 
When asked about the potential usefulness of Liberal Arts degrees, Stephen Isherwood, Head of Graduate Recruitment at Ernst & Young said: “We recruit from all degree disciplines, including the liberal arts. Intellect, drive and personal skills are what we look for.
 
Speaking to The Journal, he said: “Who you are is less important than what you have studied and liberal arts students often have the ability to think creatively to solve problems.”

In the United States, roughly fifteen per cent of higher education establishments exist purely to offer liberal arts degrees, some dating back to the early 19th century.
 
According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, “Liberal arts graduates choosing geology as their main subject can expect a 25% rise in employment opportunities by 2016, and those choosing psychology can expect a 15% rise in the same period.”
 
University College London, ranked fifth in The Times newspaper’s Good University Guide 2010, is set to introduce a liberal arts degree from September next year.
 
Malcolm Grant, the university's provost, questioned the current UK system, suggesting that degrees in liberal arts could provide students with an expansive view of the world.

"The thing that has always troubled me is the extent to which the English model has been a narrowing of focus through A-levels and then further narrowing at university.
 
"It's the age-old debate between arts and humanities and the relative ignorance of the two communities, and that's what I see a liberal arts programme as tackling; producing students who are both literate and numerate."