The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs

Empirical evidence for the value of a liberal arts education: how and why it has a lasting impact on success, leadership, altruism, learning, and fulfillment.

In ongoing debates over the value of a college education, the role of the liberal arts in higher education has been blamed by some for making college expensive, impractical, and even worthless. Defenders argue that liberal arts education makes society innovative, creative, and civic-minded. But these qualities are hard to quantify, and many critics of higher education call for courses of study to be strictly job-specific. In this groundbreaking book, Richard Detweiler, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 college graduates aged 25 to 65, offers empirical evidence for the value of a liberal arts education. Detweiler finds that a liberal arts education has a lasting impact on success, leadership, altruism, learning, and fulfillment over a lifetime. 
  Unlike other defenders of a liberal arts education, Detweiler doesn’t rely on philosophical arguments or anecdotes but on data. He developed a series of interview questions related to the content attributes of liberal arts (for example, course assignments and majors), the context attributes (out-of-class interaction with faculty and students, teaching methods, campus life), and the purpose attributes (adult life outcomes). Interview responses show that although both the content of study and the educational context are associated with significant life outcomes, the content of study has less relationship to positive adult life outcomes than the educational context. The implications of this research, Detweiler points out, range from the advantages of broadening areas of study to factors that could influence students’ decisions to attend certain colleges.Preface
Chapter 1: Our Puzzle
Chapter 2: An Educational Ecology: Higher Learning through Purpose, Content, and Context
Chapter 3: The Liberal Arts versus The World
Chapter 4: Today's Education in the Tradition of the Liberal Arts: Purpose, Content, and Context
Chapter 5: Understanding the Impact of College Experiences on Adult Life: The Research Approach
Chapter 6: Research Outcomes: Lives of Consequence as Leaders and Altruists
Chapter 7: Research Outcomes: Lives of Inquiry through Continued Learning and Cultural Involvement
Chapter 8: Research Outcomes: Lives of Accomplishment through a Fulfilled and Successful Life
Chapter 9: The Brain and Impact Education
Chapter 10: The Question of Value: Impact Education
Chapter 11: Capturing Impact: Implications and Value
Chapter 12: Becoming Higher Educated and the Liberal Arts
Appendix 1: The Question of Cause and Effect
Appendix 2: Attributes of Participants and Colleges Attended
Appendix 3: Liberal Arts Practices, Not Institutions
Appendix 4: Data Considerations, Demographics, and Statistical Approach
Appendix 5: Statistical Results
Notes
Bibliography
Index“[A] superb source for those wanting a clear explanation of the value of the liberal arts.”  –Forbes, "The Best Higher Education Books of 2021"“Richard Detweiler weaves together a rich historical context, insights from contemporary global institutions, and a unique set of original research data into a compelling case for the value of liberal arts education to both individuals and societies."
—Sean M. Decatur, President, Kenyon College
 
“A statistically rigorous analysis of the particular features of liberal arts education that actually produce impressive lifetime outcomes. Detweiler separates what works from what doesn’t, and makes an empirically compelling case for liberal arts.”
—Daniel F. Chambliss, Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Hamilton College, and coauthor of How College Works

“A welcome, qualitative data-based contribution to the literature on the historic and contemporary role of liberal arts education, and its prospects in a post-pandemic world needing to triangulate public health, economic growth, and civic engagement.”
—David G. Horner, President, The American College of GreeceRichard A. Detweiler is President Emeritus of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and Founder and Managing Director of Higher Ed Impact.