Europe Looks for Better Ways to Measure the Value of the Arts and Humanities

By Ellen Hazelkorn. How can universities demonstrate the benefit that arts and humanities research provides to society? It’s a perennial question and one that has become more urgent in Europe in recent years. I belong to a European consortium, supported by the Humanities in the European Research Area, that is investigating ways to better understand, capture, and measure the impact of the arts and humanities on society.
The arts and humanities have traditionally explained themselves in terms of intrinsic value; this has arguably been so since academe’s earliest days. While universities may differ in the emphasis they place on different disciplines, the belief that society benefits from the pursuit of knowledge and the scholarship generated by universities remains at the heart of the arts and humanities. This helps explain the strong endorsement of the liberal arts in the United States as the bedrock of undergraduate education. However, that certainty of value is now being challenged. Read more...