Should We Dissuade Students From Pursuing a Liberal Arts Degree?

If the economy continues to improve and people want to look for work, much emphasis has been placed on the kind of college education students get. The case has been made, in particular, that students should concentrate on STEM areas rather than the liberal arts, and that the liberal arts are, if not futile, a bad investment for both individual students and society as a whole. For a long time, the importance, expense, and usefulness of a college degree have been a contentious issue, with the dispute often seeming to be an exchange between supporters and detractors of liberal arts education. In this light, this paper provides an argument on why students should be discouraged from investing in a liberal arts education but rather focus more on studying STEM courses that have proved to drive the global economy that has become globalized, advanced and very progressive.

Many people have often downgraded the value and importance of liberal arts courses. Liberal degrees in History and Religious Studies, for example, have raised concerns as questionable majors among many stakeholders involved in the making of state policies. The contention is that liberal arts graduates often find it hard to secure themselves decent jobs or in cases that they find employment, they unfortunately earn very meager salaries that cannot sustain themselves. This has elicited talks on if enrolling and studying for a liberal arts program is worth the resources channeled towards the course or if students should enroll in STEM and more practical courses. Additionally, the American Bureau of Labour Statistics (2015), asserts that the quantitative worth of a liberal arts degree is very low and that students who studied STEM courses such as Engineering earn more than students who studied liberal arts courses such as History and Philosophy.

With the rapid advancements evident in the 21st century today, scientific and technological inventions have progressively become vital as the world continues to experience the benefits of the globalization shift and having a knowledge-based economy. Today, the global economy has become intensely globalized and as a result, graduates with knowledge, competencies and skills that drive innovation are highly sought after. Majority of the economic progress that highly industrialized countries such as Japan have achieved over the past few years can be attributed to the country’s support for innovation and the study of STEM courses by their students (IRM Association, 2014). These students eventually become equipped with STEM skills and are then able to drive the country’s economy to progression.

According to a recently released study by the American Bureau of Labour Statistics (2015), with more than 12 million Americans being unemployed, the manufacturing sector in the country cannot find employees with the skills to match their needs to fill up nearly 600,000 jobs that remain vacant. The study also identified that the hardest jobs to fill are the jobs that require skilled positions such as engineering and technologists. Also, the U.S. manufacturing sector continues to draw a significant share of FDI inflows which are reported on a current cost basis (Economics & Statistics Administration, 2017). The Economics & Statistics Administration (2017) asserts that from 2013-2016, the manufacturing sector accounted for 60 percent of the total FDI inflows in the United States of America.

Despite all these statistics, many students are enrolling to study for liberal arts courses where the labor in these fields is in excess and the demand is low while high-demand jobs, particularly those in STEM fields, remain vacant. Students need to be advised while registering and enrolling for their college and university courses so that they can be able to make the right decisions and avoid experiencing employment crises in their future.

I hold the conviction that STEM-related skills are not just a source of employment but they enable one to secure a job that is well paying. It is also quite evident that upon graduation, students who enrolled to study for STEM subjects earn more than Master's degree graduates who studied liberal arts. Data from Faculty (2011) shows that median earnings in America run from $29,000 for counseling-psychology majors to $120,000 for petroleum-engineering majors

But despite the well rewarding potential, many young people are unwilling to enter into fields that need a background in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics. This evidently becomes a problem for the young people and more importantly to our country’s economy. Our economy needs students with STEM-related skills and expertise so that they can compete globally. In this case, for example, for the United States of America to remain the global innovation leader it is today, the country must strive to make efforts in ensuring that the number of students who enroll for STEM courses is on the rise each year (Freeman & Marginson, 2014).

I believe that improving the achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will go a long way to ensuring that America’s economy is on the global map and that it competes competitively, creates jobs and eventually attains the levels of economic prosperity that will sustain its citizens’ standards of living. Mass enrollment of students studying STEM related courses for their higher education and the delivery of high quality STEM education exemplifies an opportunity that students, instructors and business owners must grab if America is to acquire and sustain a competitive advantage. Even with the unemployment rates escalating each day, a huge number of jobs remain vacant due to the huge deficit in an educational background in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Undoubtedly, one of the largest sources of employment, economic growth and development will come from jobs that entail skills in the STEM subjects (Gallant, 2012).

I hence personally believe that the government should devote more of its resources and finances to STEM students. With the increased digital revolution that has brought in numerous changes in the job markets and given that traditional jobs in sales, advertising, office management and other type of back-office operations are being substituted by technology, it would undoubtedly seem beneficial to become more acquainted with the science courses. In this light, I would argue that the idea that channeling public funds from the liberal arts programs to STEM programs will make the world more competitive in the long run. Gallant (2012) explains that the key purpose of learning institutions should not be to churn out half-baked and impractical students of specific types of majors but, rather, to pay emphasis on how to produce graduates who are capable of learning and applying their knowledge over the course of their lifetime. Every college and university should equip their students with the knowledge and skills taught in STEM subjects. For example, comprehending how artificial intelligence works will be essential to a successful and prosperous economy.

Additionally, we should not keep being insincere to the young people that a bachelor's degree in philosophy or sociology is equally valuable as a STEM related degree for example in Mechanical Engineering. We should however be honest enough and tell them the truth so that we can be able to save our economy and that of the world from collapsing and falling due to lack of practical skills. All degrees are not similar and if parents, guardians and instructors continue upholding this prejudiced approach, then we shall be failing the young people by declining to tell them the truth which will consequently damage the long-term viability of the world economy.

STEM courses evidently enable the students to think practically, to grasp potential opportunities, take risks and eventually be able to amass and create wealth (IRM Association, 2014). Simply put, practical and technical oriented courses give the students a toolkit to apply the theory that they learnt in class to the real world. It also makes them more employable. The global workforce must hence become more innovative to remain competitive. However, I am not suggesting that learning institutions should bar the study of the liberal arts but the schools should put more emphasis on STEM and more technical courses.

Reminiscence for yesterday is great, but a new approach and strategy to get things done is certainly important as we need to adopt and embrace change if we need to remain relevant. As more and more jobs are becoming programmed, restructured and downscaled, then changes on what students learn at school should be made. In this light, schools should train a new generation of self-reliant and well-rounded individuals who have acquired more practical skills.

However, to others, the value of taking a liberal arts course seems undisputable, but to parents who are paying huge amounts of school fees and are enthusiastic of a practical return on their investment, the value does not seem to manifest itself. However, a liberal-arts education is a nice preparation that a young person can have since the objective of most liberal-arts colleges is to educate the whole person (Berry, 2016). By studying history, for example, students gain the knowledge and understanding of other cultures, and learn to see the world from numerous perceptions. Importantly, pursuing a course that interests you is just the right thing to do (Bissonnette, 2010). Bissonnette (2010) continues to argue that one will have a more fun and richer experience by studying a course that pleases him or her.

In conclusion, STEM education has largely contributed to the immense advances and developments in technology, globalization and informatics in our world today. To be able to carry on with the present improvements that have been evidenced and be able to have new technological advancements, a constant stream of labor force that has STEM-related knowledge, skills and expertise will be of paramount importance. It is due to such importance and a significant role that STEM plays and will continue to play in our economy that vigorous mass awareness should be made to students to convince them to study and enroll for STEM courses. This will help them create an edge in the job markets and eventually drive our economy to huge economic heights of growth and development.

































References

American Bureau of Labour Statistics. (2015). STEM Crisis or STEM surplus? Yes and Yes. United States Department Labor Statistics.

Berry, D. L. (2016). The Future of the Liberal Arts: A Global Conversation. Universities Canada, 1-24.

Bissonnette, Z. (2010). Your College Major May Not Be As Important As You Think. Retrieved October 26, 2017, from The New York Times: https://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/major/

Economics & Statistics Administration. (2017). Foreign Direct Investment in the United States. Retrieved October 26, 2017, from United States Department of Commerce: http://www.esa.doc.gov/reports/stem-good-jobs-and-future

Faculty. (2011, May 23). Median Earnings by Major and Subject Area. Retrieved October 26, 2017, from The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Median-Earnings-by-Major-and/127604

Freeman, B., & Marginson, S. (2014). The Age of STEM: Educational Policy and Practice Across the World in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. London: Routledge.

Gallant, D. J. (2012). Science, Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics (STEM) Education. Educational Policy and Leadership, 1-7.

IRM Association. (2014). STEM Education: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications. Hershey: IGI Global.