January 07, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Book interview, Abundant University, remaking higher education for a Digital World; Why is liberal arts education necessary? – January 7, 2024

58 minutes

For many people, access to universities for study and degrees is a means to future economic success. So families sacrifice to pay for this education, or often take out substantial loans to cover the cost. But what if universities opened their access and became truly abundant as a societal resource. Economist Michael Smith, in his new book The Abundant University, makes the case for rethinking access to higher education. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Michael D. Smith is a Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III College and Tapper School of Business. He is the author of The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World.

Universities want to appeal to their students, who increasingly look to their schooling as a training period for future employment. But this puts traditional liberal arts departments like philosophy at risk. We examine the future of liberal arts education in light of the trend to silo student training into pre-professional programs at the undergraduate level. [ dur: 30mins. ]

Robert E. Williams, Jr. is Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University. He is the co-author of Seeking Security in an Insecure World and the co-editor of Arms Control: History, Theory, and Policy.

Alexandra Monchick is Associate Professor of Musicology at California State University, Northridge. She is the author of Critical Thinking and Writing Strategies in the Music Bibliography Classroom.

Michael Theune is Professor of English and University Writing Program Director at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is the co-author of We Need to Talk: A New Method for Evaluating Poetry.

This program is produced by Maria Armoudian, Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian and Sudd Dongre.

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