Daniel Little — What is the good of a university education?

The central thrust of [Martha Nussbaum's] argument in Not for Profit is that universities need to own up to the social necessity of preparing young people for democracy -- not merely careers in the most lucrative possible industries at a moment in time. She believes that the disciplines of the humanities, and the less quantitative disciplines in the social sciences, are crucial for this task. But she also believes that these disciplines are increasingly perceived by policy makers, the public, and even some university leaders as being irrelevant, useless, and unnecessary at a time when universities are struggling for financial stability. (She refers, for example, to the cancellation of a major conference on the future of the humanities at a leading university for reasons that seem suspiciously commercial.) And she believes that this is a global trend -- not simply in the United States but in Europe and Asia as well. (One of the strengths of the book is Nussbaum's effort to compare the developments that are underway in India and various European countries.)

Read it at Understanding Society
What is the good of a university education?
Daniel Little | Chancellor, University of Michigan-Dearborn

After all, this is what "liberal education" means.