By Yojana Sharma. As Yale-NUS College – the flagship liberal arts programme in Asia run by Yale and the National University of Singapore – inaugurated its new campus with three residential colleges this month, there have been rumblings of discontent over the course content. Read more...
Social sciences neglect leads to narrow development view
By Wachira Kigotho. The marginalisation of social sciences and humanities in African universities has radically stifled scholarship, according to CODESRIA – the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. At a workshop in Nairobi, scholars from the diaspora and from Sub-Saharan Africa heard that this had narrowed the region’s view on development. Read more...
Liberal Arts Deserves Better Arguments
By . You may have noticed that I failed to award a “worst back-to-school” piece for the second year running. This is because the bad stuff took a while to come out. Rest assured, it came, and I now present two of them.
First is Heather Mallick’s little missive on Liberal Arts in the Star last week. The utterly lazy premise is this: advances in ICT have changed the world dramatically, so what matters now is synthesis. And by God, Liberal Arts gives you synthesis, even if it doesn’t give you science. So, yay Liberal Arts. More...
Are Japanese Humanities Faculties Really Being Shut Down?
By . You may have noticed stories in the press recently about the government of Japan asking national universities to shut down their humanities faculties. Such stories have appeared in the Times Higher Ed, Time, and Bloomberg. Most of these stories have been accompanied by commentary about how shortsighted this is: don’t the Japanese know that life is complex, and that we need humanities for synthesis, etc.? A lot of these stories are also tinged with a hint of early-1990s “these uncultured Asians only think about business and money” Japanophobia. More...
GOP Hopeful Notes Value of Humanities Degree
Carly Fiorina, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, on Sunday noted the value of her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in medieval history and philosophy, ABC News reported. Read more...
Humanities Majors' Salaries
By Scott Jaschik. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences -- an advocate for the humanities and general education -- is today releasing a series of studies on the employability and earnings of those who majored in the humanities. The studies don’t contest that those who earn bachelor’s degrees earn less, on average, than those who major in other fields.
But the studies show that graduates with degrees in the humanities earn much more than the average for all American workers (a group that includes many without college degrees), challenging those who suggest that a degree in the humanities is a waste, at least financially. Read more...
Japanese University Humanities and Social Sciences Programs Under Attack
By Jeff Kingston. On June 8 the Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) sent a ten-page directive to all 86 national universities in Japan, apparently calling on them, inter alia, to abolish or reorganize their humanities and social sciences (HSS) departments. I use the word “apparently” because the wording of the letter is ambiguous. A former Ministry of Education official’s Facebook posting in September is quoted on the European Association of Japanese Studies online forum asserting that the directive has been misinterpreted. More...
Humanities research is groundbreaking, life-changing… and ignored
By Gretchen Busl. Humanities scholars are making strides in sectors from sustainability to robotics – why are so few people aware of their work. More...
Could liberal arts colleges become America's finest export?
By Helen Lock. Tiny and community-spirited, American liberal arts colleges are a peculiar breed in higher education. But they’re starting to catch on across the globe. More...
Japan and the social sciences: behind the headlines
By Kenn Nakata Steffensen. Kenn Nakata Steffensen takes an in-depth look at the challenges facing Japan’s public universities.
Recent news coverage paints an alarming picture of the higher education scene in Japan. More...