Rethinking liberal arts education in Indonesia

Alex Arifianto, The SMERU Research Institute, Jakarta
alexarifianto@hotmail.com

Today more than ever, millions of young Indonesians are pursuing post-secondary school studies. These youngsters choose to do this because they believe that only by acquiring higher education degrees will they be able to have the good-paying jobs necessary to improve their economic welfare and social standing.

Enrollment at Indonesian universities, both public and private, and other post-secondary school institutions are at an all-time high. Those that could afford to pursue higher education abroad have flocked to post-secondary school learning institutions in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and many other countries.

Most of these students will pursue their studies in a specialized field such as business, engineering and information technology. They believe that by doing so they would increase their job prospects with prospective employers, as competition for the limited number of jobs available for university graduates is becoming fiercer every day.

While one could accept this rationale, especially in light of the economic crisis Indonesia has had in the past few years, one could raise a question on whether in the long run, pursuing a narrow field of study would enable one to achieve high-ranking positions in both the public and private sector that they have aspired for and also to enable one to lead a fulfilling life.

It has been recognized by higher education experts worldwide that unlike what many have thought, the best post-secondary school education that enables one to have a successful life is not obtained through a specialized field of study. Instead, it is obtained by pursuing a course of study in the liberal arts field.

The world "liberal" in liberal arts comes from the Latin liber, meaning free -- freedom from ignorance, intolerance and isolation. The term liberal arts does not refer to politics, and the arts part does not mean artistic.

Today's liberal arts curriculum ranges from the social sciences (anthropology, economics, psychology and sociology) to the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, geology and physics), to the humanities (English, history, philosophy, classics, foreign languages and mathematics), as well as music and art.

A typical core curriculum in a liberal arts college reflects the attitude that a well-educated person should be exposed to a broad base of knowledge. This core curriculum equips students with the indispensable tools of intellectual discourse and discovery, the ability to read and think critically, to reason quantitatively and to write clearly and precisely.

Grounding in the liberal arts offers a window on history, culture, and human beings, on methods of intellectual inquiry that transcends any particular subject, problems, moment in time or job. Theory complemented by practice allows us to both know and to do, to understand why and appreciate how.

In essence, a liberal arts education is the development of the most basic and important intellectual abilities: To reason clearly and critically, to read carefully and accurately, to speak and write precisely and persuasively, to interpret with insight and imagination and to make original contributions to a chosen field of study.

Many thought that liberal arts education has become obsolete and irrelevant in our rapidly changing world driven by technology and the bottom line that we have nowadays. They believe that to survive in this world, one should gain a specialization in their post-secondary school studies. Only those who are idealists, naive and could not make up their minds on a specific field of study should pursue a study in the liberal arts.

However, contrary to the above notions, many businesses have found that hiring someone with a liberal arts background is more preferable than hiring one with a specialized knowledge in business or engineering and that more than ever, companies are looking for university graduates who pursued their studies in the liberal arts.

According to Roger Herman, a strategic business futurist, the greatest challenge for leaders in this new century, will be to keep up, to constantly learn. Regardless of their size, the businesses that thrive in the future will be those that can best negotiate new alliances and partnerships. The leaders of these companies will need to be versed in diplomacy and adaptability; they cannot rely on traditional methods of directing and controlling.

Herman states that in the years ahead companies will need more and more workers who can think, collaborate, create, solve problems, communicate and lead. Business leaders have found that workers who possess these skills are those who pursue liberal arts education in their university years.

With these invaluable skills, it is no wonder that graduates of liberal arts universities have become very successful in the business, political, cultural and scientific worlds. A 1998 study conducted by The Annapolis Group, a consortium of leading American liberal arts colleges, found that even though only three percent of American university graduates were educated at residential liberal arts colleges, alumni of these colleges accounted for eight percent of Forbes magazine's wealthiest CEOs, nineteen percent of former American presidents, and twenty percent of the scientists elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

In fact, many liberal arts graduates have distinguished themselves as world leaders. Former United States presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong are just a few world leaders who pursued their post-secondary studies in the liberal arts.

Thus, instead of dismissing the liberal arts as an outdated and impractical subject, more Indonesians should embrace it. The Indonesian government should promote studies in liberal arts by reinvigorating existing liberal arts faculties as well as establishing new ones. More private liberal arts universities should also be established in this country.

Young Indonesians would benefit greatly from pursuing a study in the liberal arts, since it would enable them to acquire important analytical and writing skills that would make them better citizens and leaders, something that is in a very short supply nowadays.

The writer is a researcher with the SMERU Research Institute, a Jakarta-based public policy institute. The views expressed here are solely those of the author.