Liberal Arts Helps People Become Life-Long Learners

Exposing management students to the stream will help create well-rounded business managers

- Shekhar A Bhattacharjee

Liberal arts, through the ages, has been revered as a valuable stream of education, but has been relegated to the sidelines. During the classical era in Europe, it was imperative for a person to be well-versed in liberal arts to be considered a worthy citizen. Prowess in debate, rhetoric, logic and ethics—skills that were gained from an education in liberal arts—placed an individual in the upper echelons of society.

Though these are the same traits that characterise a successful person in the modern world as well, the popularity of liberal arts as a field of study has waned over the centuries. Preferred only by a few, liberal arts isn’t considered enough as an education for a worthy profession. It is deemed fit to be pursued by a man of leisure or of lesser ambition.

Despite its presence in almost all centres for higher education around the world, the pursuit of liberal arts has been eclipsed by more mainstream courses in fields like science and technology, medicine and management.