The Direction of Travel: (Not) Explaining the Liberal Arts Turn in English Higher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming Educational Systems: Views From Campus Units

Abstract

Degrees named ‘liberal arts’ have seen a notable growth in English higher education (as in other parts of the world) over the last fifteen years. While explanations are sometimes given that this growth relates to processes of globalisation (or more specifically ‘Americanisation’), such structural accounts can gloss over the unevenness and unpredictability of liberal arts’ global growth. Drawing on interview data with senior university figures associated with liberal arts degrees in England, the paper argues that far from following a logic, the opening (and closing) of liberal arts degrees indicates a radical lack of logic, where leaders cast about for ideas at home and abroad, without any clear idea of what they’re doing or, crucially, why they’re doing it.

Author

• Kathryn Telling, University of Sussex