KARACHI: “Liberal arts equip you with multiple ways to think about the world so that after four years of education, students leave happy and successful with meaning in their lives,” said Dr Alexander Key during his talk on the myths and conceptions of liberal arts education at Habib University on Wednesday.

Besides being a member of the Board of Governors at Habib University, Dr Key also serves as Chair of the Undergraduate Affairs Committee at Stanford University, USA. He is also the associate professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature, and the director of the Stanford Humanities Core and Undergraduate Studies, Comparative Literature.

“Liberal arts is just a small two-word label for small elite teaching-focused universities for 18- to 22-year-olds. The main work of these universities is to teach young people to focus on options, choices and flexibly. The best way to ensure people are successful when they leave your institutions is to give them options. You don’t expect them to keep doing one thing which they wanted to do at 18 or 22 all their lives because eventually they will get tired of it and be unhappy. When not happy, they won’t be able to contribute to society,” he explained.

“I’ve spent six good years at Stanford where I have had lots of conversations with students who are confused and concerned and worried about what to study, what classes to pick, what summer courses to pick. And we are assuring and reassuring them that they are ok, on the right track. At Stanford, which is not a liberal arts university, we are trying to rethink education.

“So if you want to do poetry, you can do poetry, but we will make sure that you also have other options because you can only go so long with one thing in life. It is the ideas and concepts you put in front of your students, who don’t yet know they would need them, but they give them intellectual confidence,” said Dr Key.

‘Broad skill set’

Later, during a panel discussion, moderated by Dr Waqar Saleem, associate professor, Computer Science Dhanani School of Science and Engineering in discussion with Amna Shoaib from the Social Development and Policy, class of 2020, Dr Key spoke further on having a broad skill set, which liberal arts education does for you.

Dr Saleem said that these days you dream of Google, Meta, Apple, etc, as big companies to go work for. He asked Dr Key how he talks to students and presents the case of broad education to them when they want only to work for just Google.

“Well, I ask them how they will grow in tech without a broad skill set? Also what is it which sets them apart during the job interview and tests? You need to look good in meetings. The more you know the better. The world is so complicated, you need to deal with it with a broad skill set,” he said. “You’ll do better if you have spent four years reading and thinking instead of studying just calculus or computer science,” Dr Key added.

Dr Saleem also added to that by saying that human resources looks for diverse personalities or well-rounded personalities.

Ms Amna spoke about the complicated decisions at the time of graduation and making students comfortable with certain uncertainties in life.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2022