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The liberal arts approach to higher education is a growing trend globally. We are told that the mental dexterity and independent, questioning spirit cultivated by such interdisciplinary degrees are the best preparation for the as-yet unknown executive jobs of tomorrow.
This book explores the significant recent growth of these degrees in England in order to address an enduring problem for higher education: the relationship between meritocracy and elitism.
Against the view that the former is a myth providing rhetorical cover for the latter, it argues that these are two entangled, but discrete, value systems. Sociology must now pay attention to how students and academics attempt to disentangle them.
Introduction
1. Trailblazing Traditionalists: Imagining the Liberal Arts in Time
2. Discipline and its Discontents: Multi, Inter or Transdisciplinarity?
3. Distinctly Indistinct: Generic Skills and the Unique Student
4. Jobs for the Generalist: Non-Vocational Degrees and Employability
5. Identity and the ‘Ideal’ Student: Citizens, Cosmopolitans, Consumers?
6. Meritocracy and Mass Higher Education: Character, Ease and Educational Intimacy
Conclusion