Graduates in the arts, humanities and social sciences are just as employable as their counterparts in STEM subjects, fuel some of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK and enjoy rewarding careers in a wide range of sectors. These are the key findings of a new British Academy report examining the employment prospects of graduates from different subject groups.
Read more here.
Image: Marcus Reubenstein
When people who should know better do something egregiously silly, humanities graduates tend to apply their critical thinking skills to understanding why. Using the reasoning powers and the understanding of the human condition they have derived from their study of history, philosophy, literature or the social sciences, they often find they can attribute the folly to one or more of ignorance, cowardice or malice. In the case of the government’s decision to more than double the cost of most humanities degrees, it seems all three explanations are relevant.
Let us take ignorance first. The government claims to have consulted widely. How then is it not aware of the research findings of expert bodies, ranging from Oxford University and the World Economic Forum to our own Foundation for Young Australians, all of which show that humanities graduates are highly employable and tend to outperform other graduates in any given career? Does it not know that many of the founders and leaders of the world’s largest companies in Silicon Valley such as LinkedIn and YouTube are humanities graduates? Even a few phone calls would have revealed that two thirds of the CEOs of the ASX 200 are as well. And they should surely know that two out of three federal parliamentarians are.
And who are the companies they claim to have consulted? Why is their definition of future skill requirements so different from that defined by all recent research, including that cited on the government’s own “Skills for the Future” webpage? A recent report from Deloitte suggests that the skills that are in increasing demand are precisely those developed by the humanities: communication, teamwork, critical thinking, self-management and solving novel problems. Most of the degrees the government has chosen to privilege involve learning specific techniques with a narrow range of application, which are exactly the type of skills for which demand is projected to decline. All informed commentators agree that the nature of work is changing rapidly, thanks in particular to learning machines, and people will need to change roles and learn different skills many times in their careers.
A further example of ignorance is a complete failure to consider the side-effects of an inappropriate use of pricing signals. Do we really want all our teachers and nurses to be those who could not afford to do another degree? Do we want to establish a hereditary class system, where most of the people getting to the top in business or politics are those whose parents could help fund a humanities degree? If we want more people to apply to become teachers and nurses – and I’m sure we do – a more effective application of neo-liberal principles would be to increase the miserable amount we pay them, rather than try to convert places of learning into job factories.
Assuming some of these things were known to the decision-makers, the next explanation is cowardice. It is easy to pretend to be supporting the economy by funding courses with job-titles in them and much harder to explain to the public why the skills we need don’t actually come in courses with job titles – especially to a public many of whom have been denied a humanities education themselves by past policies and misrepresentations. This cowardice comes at the expense of our children. Even if the jobs they have been herded into in response to these price signals turn out to be ones they enjoy and are good at (an unlikely combination of circumstances given the basis of the decision-making), they will change jobs on average every three or four years, and whatever job they learn to do now is almost certain to have been radically disrupted by learning machines long before they reach mid-career, in some cases before they have completed their studies. They will have spent the best years of their lives for learning in acquiring techniques the world will no longer pay them for, and they will not have developed the flexibility and transferrable skills they need to succeed in today’s world, let alone tomorrow’s.
A charge of malice is more disturbing. An alert citizenry will recognise, however, that this decision is consistent with the government’s treatment of research grants, notably through the Arts Council, its defunding of the ABC and its lack of support for universities and the performing arts during the COVID-19 crisis. A government that feels a need to constrain critical thinking must give us great cause for concern.
©Dr Peter Acton 2020
Dr Peter Acton is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and The Australian Institute of Management, and was Managing Partner of the Boston Consulting Group’s Melbourne office. He is the Founding President of Humanities21 (www.humanities21.com.au)
#BreakingNews
#Humanities
In response to ABC News report: "University fees to be overhauled, some course costs to double as domestic student places boosted" -
Our position @ Humanities 21 is as follows:
The Government’s hiking of the costs for studying the humanities in favour of ‘job-ready graduates’ undermines the value of a humanities education.
Humanities courses teach critical thinking, communication, and creative problem-solving skills fundamental to diverse industries and careers. The humanities, combined with other studies provides students not only with a dynamic skillset, but one that has been harnessed by leaders today, from the CEOs of Disney, Westpac, and YouTube, to Prime Ministers.
It is through engaging with the humanities, that we can tackle problems, and invest in our future. Individually, and as communities, we look to shared understandings to see issues from different perspectives, and to engage with a critical and empathetic perspective.
The humanities provide this, and studying the humanities makes us better.
#humanities #university #government #degrees #students #Australia
The complexities of contemporary existence cannot do without humanities. With technology overtaking human roles in our activities and even our thoughts through artificial intelligence, [the] humanities need to go through a renaissance of its own so that it remains relevant to modern times. It needs a radical restructuring of its scope and its practical implications. In spite of the fact that our lives are dictated by science, technology and economics, it goes without saying that the fundamental questions of who we are and how we ought to live still remain rather puzzling, writes Rudrashis Datta, Assistant Professor in English at Pritilata Waddedar Mahavidyalaya in Nadia, Bengal. Read more here.
In Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, American philosopher Martha C Nussbaum laments that while the humanities are vital for a functioning democratic society, humanities education around the world is fighting for its existence. Nussbaum also points to several notable failures including a NASA space shuttle launch, and the collapses of Enron and WorldCom., that can be attributed to the absence of the type of critical thinking a humanities education provides.
In Good to Great, a study that examined organisations with extraordinary market results over an extended period of time, American author and consultant Jim Collins found that successful companies benefited from diverse management teams whose different perspectives generated innovation through conflict and creativity, although this had to be accompanied by certain interpersonal skills, notably empathy, so as to ensure constructive discussion and resolution.
Empathy is the glue that holds successful teams together and it can be developed through the study of history, literature and philosophy. Alain de Botton, founder of “The School of Life”, argues that literature is “the very best reality simulator”, because books allow us to experience life as others do, but in a shorter amount of time. Not only does this teach us about others, it teaches us about ourselves so that we can empathise with other points of view and be less driven by our own emotions.
Business savvy employers actively recruit people with a liberal arts education background to accommodate a fast-changing workplace. As job requirements alter and the future becomes more challenging to predict, companies are needing fewer staff for repetitive tasks that can increasingly be done by machines, and more people with the flexibility to learn new skills quickly, respond thoughtfully to uncertainty, make logical and clear arguments and approach new challenges creatively. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating said in a recent interview that we should be “modifying our education system to allow young people to swim their way more confidently in the much more horizontal and collaborative world that the digital economy facilitates.”(Weekend Australian, 26/10/2019)
There is considerable evidence that the critical thinking, empathy and flexibility that are developed by a humanities education can underpin very successful careers. CEOs of some of the world’s leading companies studied the humanities at university, including Harold Schultz (Starbucks – speech communication) Michael Eisner (Disney - English), Richard Plepler (HBO - government) Carly Fiorina (HP- philosophy and medieval history), John Mackey (Whole Foods – philosophy and religion), Susan Wojcicki (YouTube – history and literature) and Alexa Hirschfeld (Paperless Post - classics). Stuart Butterfield, founder of Flickr, Slack and several other technology start-ups, has a Masters degree in philosophy, as does Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn.
Closer to home, Westpac’s Gail Kelly taught Latin before she went into banking. In its monthly newsletter, Humanities21 features an Arts@Work section that explores how the humanities have helped people get ahead in a diverse range of occupations, ranging from a management consultant with a degree in music from the Queensland Conservatorium to Telstra’s head of government relations, sustainability and corporate responsibility, who attributes his career to his original arts degree and, later in life, further study in ethics.
Some companies encourage their staff to take advantage of humanities based public lecture series offered by universities, state libraries or The School of Life. The Cranlana Centre of Ethical Leadership in Melbourne provides an intense immersion in philosophy for senior executives. Other organisations bring the academics to their premises. Humanities21 for example, has a catalogue of over 60 experts in subjects ranging from ancient history through to literature, philosophy and art to international politics, who present lectures to a range of companies. Some corporations simply view these lunchtime lectures as an interesting staff benefit; others use the talks to generate creative thinking, and for some organisations, selected talks may focus on a specific corporate priority such as leadership or gender balance. One management consultant compared a series of talks to “a theme park full of unexpected thrills”, whilst a solicitor said that a talk on the French Revolution gave him “great insight into the correlations between historic events and current corporate life”.
Australia, more than many other developed countries, has tended to underestimate the value the humanities can bring to the workplace. Although there are indeed, certain corporations celebrating the value of the humanities, in their recruitment practices, infrastructure development, corporate policies and professional development, it is clear our country’s most successful organisations in the future are likely to be those who have done most to engage with the humanities, in all their manifestations.
©Jonathan Wedgwood
Jonathan Wedgwood is an intern at Humanities 21 and is currently undertaking an Executive Masters of Arts which includes a minor thesis focusing on the arts, ethics and AI, at the University of Melbourne. Jonathan has a special interest in the power of education, particularly in the areas of the arts and humanities.
Website Navigation tip: Click on the ☰ (3 bars) upper right in the banner to visit our pages.
