Evaluating the liberal arts model in the context of the Dutch University College

Abstract

The Liberal Arts model of undergraduate education within small, internationally-focused University Colleges is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. This trend is most notable in the Netherlands, where the liberal arts model is acclaimed as filling a gap in Dutch undergraduate education at conventional research universities. This paper explores the status of the Dutch University College as simultaneously continuing the liberal arts tradition of the US, with its civic and pedagogic values, and providing a truly modern education preparing students to find innovative and inter-disciplinary solutions to the complex problems which define contemporary society. It concludes that the traditional role of a liberal arts education in cultivating intellectual rather than vocation skills does not have to exclude its appeal as providing the skills necessary for professional success in global sectors of the 21 st century knowledge economy.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• education of professional skills
• intellectual arts
• inter-disciplinary
• the Dutch University College
• liberal arts and sciences

Notes

1. In chronological order of foundation, these institutes include: Utrecht University College (1999), University College Maastricht (2002), Roosevelt University College (2004), Amsterdam University College (2009), Leiden University College (2010) Erasmus University College (2013) University College Groningen (2014).

2. University College Haarlem is to be opened within the next few years.

3. The payment of higher tuition fees by students attending a Dutch University College, as opposed to another Dutch institute of higher education, the former currently paying approximately 4200, the latter approximately 2000 is justified by Articles 6.7, 6.7a, 6.7b and 6.7c of the Dutch Higher Education and Research Act or ‘Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek’ (WHW).

4. A similar process of the marketization and commodification of the pedagogic ideals of the liberal arts in the US contexts is discussed in Shumar’s College For Sale (1997).

5. It is Dewey’s concept of the ‘experiential continuum’ that understands education in the community as transformative of the self. (1938).

6. These courses are present in the majority of Dutch University Colleges, but are named slightly differently: ‘Civic Engagement and Community’ at University College Utrecht, ‘Community Project: Multicultural Education in The Hague’ at University College Leiden and the ‘Global Challenges’ course at University College Groningen.