Beyond the Liberal Arts

In expanding access to college, don’t forget vocational training
The four-year liberal arts college is by far the predominant form of higher education in America. Of the 18 million students in post-secondary education, about 11 million study in four-year institutions.
While many top-tier schools provide superior outcomes, critics have pointed out the length of liberal arts programs and the lack of practical applications. Some say that the best way to promote higher education may be to look beyond the liberal arts and focus on increasing the number of effective and useful vocational training programs.
A Liberalizing Force

Proponents of the liberal arts argue that the traditional four-year curriculum develops both academic skills and a broader sense of purpose. “Does liberal education develop national identity or global citizenship, promote unity or diversity, cultivate moral or intellectual?” ask David Weeks and Diana Pavlac Glyer, authors of The Liberal Arts in Higher Education. “The literature suggests liberal education does all of these things (and more),” the authors conclude. Ernest Pascarella, author of How College Affects Students, finds that graduates of liberal arts schools enjoy superior outcomes on a host of measures, from moral reasoning tests to the MCAT.
Wasted Money?

Yet there is also data that suggests a liberal arts education may not be for everyone. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 37 percent of students enrolled in an American liberal arts college will drop out before receiving a degree.
Richard Vedder, a professor of economics at Ohio University, told the HPR that he blames “credential inflation” for the stream of unqualified and unprepared students inundating four-year colleges. Students arrive at colleges lured by statistics that seem to promise better prospects for employment and higher earnings. The unemployment rate for those holding at least a bachelor’s degree, for instance, is four to six percent lower than for those with only a high school education.
Vocational Alternatives
However, while able students can attend college and avoid unemployment, others enjoy less of a benefit from the college label. The liberal arts may no longer even be the most lucrative form of higher education. A National Assessment of Vocational Education report contends that the employment growth in occupations requiring a vocational associate’s degree is projected to be more than double overall employment growth over the next decade.
Similarly, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation found that earning a college degree did not produce an increase in students’ earnings relative to a control group, while career academies and vocational schools boosted earnings by 11 percent. Given the escalating costs of liberal arts education, this suggests that vocational training might be both less risky and more lucrative for students.
Spiritual and Vocational

Traditional higher education still offers certain attractions, of course. Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Elena Rouse have calculated that a student entering college today can expect to recoup his investment within 10 years of graduation. Likewise, intangible benefits may prove as valuable as earnings. As Ron Brown, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told the HPR, “Working through four years of intellectual exploration can be of maturating effect on a person choosing his profession. A developmental peace… makes a liberal arts education worth it.”
Nevertheless, the comparative promise of vocational education and increasing concerns about liberal arts education challenge the assumption that attendance at a four-year college should be the norm for everyone. Vocational schools may not be capable of supplanting the broad and important mission of liberal arts schools, but they can secure for their graduates a steady and reliable employment. No plan for promoting higher education in America can afford to ignore them.
Luka Oreskovic ’14 is a Contributing Writer.