The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced Tuesday it will provide a $2.9 million grant to the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences for the purpose of establishing interdisciplinary programs in environmental humanities and comparative cultures of the pre-modern world. With policymakers and donors increasingly looking toward more career-oriented fields of study such as business, engineering and computer science as the targets of new funding initiatives, it is encouraging that the Mellon Foundation chose to acknowledge the continued relevance of the humanities to higher education. Although there is an unquestionable need for more degrees to be conferred that correspond to growing sectors of the U.S. economy such as health care and information technology, recent research demonstrates that studying the arts and social sciences remains immensely valuable.
The emphasis that is placed on the so-called STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - as well as business and finance has to do with their importance to the contemporary economy. With more well-paying jobs being created in these sectors and a shortage of qualified workers to fill them, it makes sense for both private donors and the public sector to encourage students to obtain degrees that will help them pursue these career options. At the same time, however, providing students with the "hard skills" necessary to start businesses, conduct scientific research and develop new technology should not detract from the significance of the "soft skills" that students gain through courses in the humanities.
Although degrees in the arts and social sciences do not necessarily offer students a ready-made career upon their graduation, the type of knowledge they gain can help them get hired to and excel in a variety of different jobs. Notably, courses of study in the humanities often succeed in imbuing students with critical thinking, writing and analytical skills that can serve them well as they fill out job applications, participate in interviews and function in competitive and demanding workplace environments.
Research included in a recent book published by Asst. Sociology Prof. Josipa Roksa and New York University Prof. Richard Arum, in fact, suggests that the humanities and social sciences outperform most other fields in terms of teaching students these skills. A quantitative analysis of student performance on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, which primarily measures critical thinking abilities, found that students in the humanities and social sciences were predicted to score between 1180 and 1200 on the 2007 test, whereas those in business and engineering/computer science were expected to score around 1120 and 1160, respectively.
Moreover, research has borne out that these skills can be economically beneficial to students throughout the course of their careers. In 2008, the National Center for Education Statistics published the results of a longitudinal study of college graduates that found the income gap between liberal arts majors and those with degrees in career-oriented fields had essentially disappeared within 10 years of their graduation. This indicates that the courses found in the humanities and social sciences not only broaden students' world views but also enhance their long-term earnings potential.
Yet many donors and state politicians are losing sight of this fact as they turn their attention toward funding other types of degree programs. "I want to spend our dollars giving people science, technology, engineering, math degrees. That's what our kids need to focus all their time and attention on. Those type of degrees. So when they get out of school, they can get a job," Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said earlier this week.
Even leaving aside the intrinsic value of a holistic undergraduate education, this approach to higher education misses a great opportunity to promote income growth and job stability by reinvesting in humanities courses that endow students with skills that can be useful either on their own or as complements to those acquired through a career-oriented education. Hopefully, groups such as the Mellon Foundation will continue to offer enough support for the humanities in the meantime so that universities can produce future leaders who will possess the analytical and reasoning skills necessary to make this connection.
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