Over the last half-decade, liberal arts education has been adopted in the study scheme of leading universities globally. An increasing number of students are opting for liberal arts education, and the list of business sectors that are hiring liberal arts graduates is getting longer with each hiring season.
The rush and attractiveness of liberal arts programs mark a distinct evolution in how education is perceived, planned, imparted, received and factored into the productive paradigm of society and nations. Liberal arts education is not a dilution of academic rigour with specialization-driven pedagogy but rather an attempt to broaden the intellectual horizon of graduates who need a radically different professional landscape in the coming years and decades. Cohorts populating academia today are only starting to stare at the massive uncertainties of the job market, which might accentuate with time with the invasion of new AI and Machine learning-based technology. A four-year BA in Liberal Arts program is offered at Manav Rachna International Institute of Research & Studies, with the same perception as NEP, with an eclectic and interdisciplinary mix of courses from different disciplines such as applied psychology, economics, political science, sociology, and international relations. MRIIRS also offers specializations in these disciplines.
Benefits of having a Liberal Arts Degree
Many studies have shown that the rate of disappearing and emerging of jobs will accelerate with the evolution of disruptive and trendsetting technologies. Surviving and thriving in such a paradigm would require a completely different skill set and, more importantly, a new way to understand how technology and humans function in an environment where man-machine boundaries would blur. Liberal art graduates are expected to play a massive part in this new professional environment due to their innovative, creative and intuitive thought processes. Liberal arts education is increasingly seen as a critical part of an educational model that would endow individuals with the requisite technical and soft skills to suit future job market demands.
Job markets have constantly been evolving and growing. The way labour was moved from the primary to the services sector has been much discussed, as has the impact of automation and computerization. The shift towards Industry 4.0, marked by efficiency-enhancing integration of disparate technologies such as robotics, the Internet of things (IoT), cloud computing and data analytics, has made several changes like job market evolution. First, it has made specific jobs obsolete at an unprecedented rate, and second, it has, for the first time, led to an environment and culture where machines and technology would start making autonomous decisions. The coming revolution led by Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning is expected to accentuate both these trends. Additionally, it will prevent the need for human inputs never seen before. It is primarily because, unlike all previous technological evolutions, AI can learn and accumulate knowledge and later put the same into action, which has hitherto been an exclusively human domain.
This ability is leading industries, academia and policymakers to rethink the workforce profile that would be needed in the future. Meanwhile, more and more jobs will be oriented towards capital-intensive operations from being labour-intensive. The multinational consultancy McKinsey predicts that by 2030, machine learning will eliminate over forty million jobs in the US. While only technological positions are currently on the decline, a lot of specialists think that in a few years, customer-focused jobs like assistance agents, front-desk employees, eatery servers, accounting professionals, specialists in sales, drivers, proofreaders, interpreters, media professionals, etc. will also be at risk. Even lawyers find that AI can do their jobs. An algorithm developed by Law Geex, an AI logic developer, was found to spot legal issues in nondisclosure agreements faster and more accurately than 20 top corporate lawyers. It was found to be more accurate and clocked a stunningly short average time of 26 seconds compared with an hour and a half by humans.
Human Skills Cannot be Replaced
Humans cannot compete with machines in any structured or complex learning arena. But machines or AI still cannot have human skills. In his book ‘Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation’, Kevin Roose contends that the key to irreplaceability is to strengthen one’s uniquely human skills, such as empathy, creativity and emotional intelligence. Machines do not have these attributes and are a long distance away from having these. According to Roose, specialist knowledge, which lent a competitive advantage to individuals for a long time, is now most threatened by new technologies. Furthermore, the ability to heuristically leverage knowledge from different sources and genres is a uniquely human trait that is hard to copy by machines. Complex social learning, adaptability, navigation of cultural pathos, ethical nuances etc., are distinctly human traits that are rare, irreplaceable and, most crucially, supplementary to future socio-economic-technological development.
Liberal Arts Education and National Education Policy 2020
Liberal art education, as envisioned by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, aims to prepare Indian students precisely with this intent (facing AI) to be productive for the evolving and unfolding professional landscape. The focus is on imparting education that enables students to think independently and critically and offer innovative solutions. By definition, liberal art education is pursuing interdisciplinary knowledge to learn how to connect ideas and develop holistic and inclusive solutions. This multidisciplinary thinking is also the hallmark of effective leadership, a highly sought-after professional skill. In the future, life skills such as creativity, social and psychological impact analysis, environmental concern etc., coupled with intellectual flexibility, will increasingly set humans apart from machines.
Interestingly, these very traits will also guide the development of future versions of machines and AI algorithms. Liberal art education pools together insights from diverse streams of knowledge such as sociology, psychology, politics, economics, history and arts. It is meant to bring these traits into students to prepare them for the future job market and be more savvy than AI.
Career with Liberal Arts
Career trajectories are no longer linear. A Liberal Arts degree offers the flexibility to explore diverse career paths. Graduates can venture into business, education, journalism, public service, law, and social work. Not just these, high-end tech firms are increasingly seeking people with expertise in human and cognitive psychology, cultural studies, history and other soft and human skills to guide algorithms for AI developments. The employability of art graduates in the technology sector is the new vista that will likely emerge as the next dimension of the job market.
To Conclude
The meaning of education is changing fast, from imparting information-driven knowledge to providing cognition and heuristic-guided thinking ability. The goal has shifted from preparing professionals to suit a job with a rigidly defined performance matrix to churning out professionals who have the flexibility to adapt, unlearn-learn, and take human-centric, creative decisions. The idea is not to be in battle with machines to save jobs, but rather to be sufficiently intelligent to co-evolve with them to advance society. A liberal art-based education prepares students to excel in this new, brave paradigm. Manav Rachna is the best stop for students wanting to go in for Liberal Arts Course and establish their individuality. Admissions Open for 2023-24! All the best!
By:
Mr. Anand Kumar Mishra, Associate Professor, Department of Social and Political Studies, School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, MRIIRS.