Experiences in Liberal Arts and Science Education from America, Europe, and Asia: A Dialogue across Continents

152 Pages·2016·1.99 MB·English

by  William C. Kirby

EXPERIENCES IN
LIBERAL ARTS AND
SCIENCE EDUCATION
FROM AMERICA,
EUROPE,AND ASIA
A Dialogue across
Continents
Edited by
William C. Kirby
Marijk van der Wende
Experiences in Liberal Arts and Science Education
from America, Europe, and Asia

William C . Kirby • M arijk C. van der Wende
Editors
Experiences in Liberal
Arts and Science
Education from
America, Europe, and
Asia
A Dialogue across Continents
Editors
William C. Kirby Marijk C. van der Wende
Harvard University Amsterdam University College
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Assistant editor
Austin X. Volz

ISBN 978-1-349-94891-8 ISBN 978-1-349-94892-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-94892-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947371
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P
REFACE
A renewed and global dialogue on liberal arts and sciences education is
engaging many regions and countries, who seek to gain from this model
in response to the twenty-fi rst-century requirements for excellence and
relevance in undergraduate education. This is illustrated by inspiring
examples of experimentation, reform, and international cooperation with
liberal arts and sciences models across continents.
This book builds on a small-scale seminar co-sponsored by the Harvard
China Fund and Amsterdam University College, hosted by Harvard
Center Shanghai on May 20–21, 2015. It brought leaders and scholars
in the fi eld of liberal arts and sciences education from around the world
together to discuss regional trends and models. They focused on how
this model can be implemented in different contexts and across academic
cultures, structures, and traditions. They asked how the model relates to
the changing experience of teaching and learning and to the contextual
role of cultures and values. Various international innovations, start-ups,
and major international collaborations between American, European, and
Asian institutions were explored so as to understand the opportunities
and the challenges for each context in developing liberal arts and sciences
education. Trends were discussed with a view to system-level impact,
secondary education structures, and demands from the labour market.
A specifi c focus was placed on developments in, and cooperation with,
China, which could gain from this model in terms of global integration
and infl uence, while sustainable success would require substantial
governance reform.
v
vi PREFACE
A selection of these contributions is collected here and aims to provide
a basis for a continued cross-continental dialogue in the years to come.
Joint aspirations and mutual inspiration support the essential goals of
liberal arts and sciences education today—educating the whole person for
a global world.
We would like to express our gratitude to the authors for sharing
their great vision and experiences, demonstrating how the world’s most
outstanding institutions are leading the way in liberal arts and sciences
education. We thank Austin Volz for his excellent assistance in editing this
volume, and we also thank Julia Cai and the staff of the Harvard Center
Shanghai for their professional support during the seminar.
William Kirby
Marijk C. van der Wende
C
ONTENTS
1 A Global Dialogue on Liberal Arts and Sciences:
Re-engagement, Re-imagination, and Experimentation 1
William C. Kirby and M arijk C. van der Wende
2 China’s Search for Its Liberal Arts and Sciences Model 1 7
Gerard Postiglione
3 The Signifi cance and Practice of General Education
in China: The Case of Tsinghua University 33
Li Cao
4 In Asia, For the World: Liberal Education and Innovation 47
Pericles Lewis
5 New Liberal Arts and Sciences Institutions in India
and Singapore: The Role of STEM Education 61
Bryan Penprase
6 Polymathy, New Generalism, and the Future of Work: A Little
Theory and Some Practice from UCL’s Arts and 
Sciences Degree 75
Carl Gombrich
vii
viii CONTENTS
7 University College Freiburg: Toward a New Unity of 
Research and Teaching in Academia 9 1
Nicholas Eschenbruch , Hans-Joachim Gehrke , and Paul Sterzel
8 The Liberal Arts and the University: Lessons for China
in the History of Undergraduate Education in the USA
and at the University of California 109
Nicholas B. Dirks
9 Transcending Boundaries: Educational Trajectories,
Subject Domains, and Skills Demands 127
Dirk Van Damme
Index 143
N C
OTES ON ONTRIBUTORS
Li   Cao i s Professor of English and American Literature and deputy Director of
Liberal Education at Tsinghua University, China. She also serves as vice president
of the Chinese Association for the Studies of Literature in English and vice
president of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures
(FILLM).
Dirk   Van Damme i s head of division in the Directorate for Education and Skills
at the OECD in Paris, where he leads the Centre for Educational Research and
Innovation and the Indicators of Educational Systems Programme. He previously
served in education policy in the Flemish part of Belgium and as an expert for
various international organisations.
Nicholas   B.   Dirks i s the Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. An
internationally renowned historian and anthropologist, Dirks is also a committed
advocate for accessible, high-quality public higher education in the liberal arts and
sciences.
Nicholas   E schenbruch w as the founding Director of Education of University
College Freiburg from 2011 to 2015. By training, he is a social anthropologist and
historian with a research focus on twentieth-century medicine.
Hans-Joachim   Gehrke P rofessor emeritus, is representative of the Rector for the
University College Freiburg. From 1982 to 2008, he was Professor of Ancient
History at the University of Würzburg, Free University of Berlin, and University
of Freiburg, and from 2008 to 2011, president of the German Archaeological
Institute.
Carl   G ombrich i s the programme Director of University College London’s Arts
and Sciences BASc degree. Carl has degrees in mathematics, physics, and
philosophy and was formerly an opera singer. He is an international speaker on
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