Abstract:

While much has been said of the impending demise of the liberal arts university in North America, where the emphasis is increasingly being placed on purposeful, vocational education, there has been an opposite trend in Asia - particularly in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. In these areas, the traditional form of higher education has always been vocational in nature, but Education ministries and university planners have recently turned to the Western liberal arts model to encourage critical thinking, creativity and global awareness - features not traditionally prioritized in the specialist Confucian educational model. This year, Hong Kong has taken the unprecedented step of introducing a full year of liberal, general education at every university in the city, with the added requirement that the language of instruction be English. Their hope is that the new system will produce graduates with the creative reasoning skills necessary for Hong Kong to maintain its economic competitiveness. Using International Christian University (the first liberal arts university in Japan) as a case study, this presentation will demonstrate how Asia is adding vitality and vigor to the liberal arts model at a time when America is losing interest in it.

Keywords:

Liberal arts, East Asia, English education, higher education.