Challenges Facing American Liberalarts Colleges And Its Responses

Liberal arts colleges are the prototype of the higher education institutions in theUnited States. Before the Civil War, liberal arts colleges increased at a rapid speed andreached its peak. After the Civil War, liberal arts colleges began to decline with thedecreasing number. Since the end of the20th century, they have reached a longplateau of development, maintaining a very small proportion and number. In theprocess of the development of the American higher education system, they ever facedthree severe challenges in the historical periods: the impact of the practical courses andthe emergence of the competitors in early19th century, the converging attack ofmodern universities and public schools in the late19th century and early20th century,and the intense market competition in the end of the20th century. Liberal arts collegesmay stick to the mission, or change, or extinct.Today, liberal arts colleges are facing such severe contemporary challenges asthe increasing tuition fee and cost brought about by the market competition, limiteddonation income and funding sources, utilitarian learning objectives, and the obscuremission and identity. In order to address the above challenges, liberal arts colleges areon the one hand giving full play to their internal advantages, preventing theover-specialization of undergraduate education, keeping effective balance of theprofessional education and liberal arts education, and providing students with moreopportunities of quality education and learning experience. On the other hand, they areexerting their cooperation ability, prompting the government departments to makegood public policy, making tuition affordable so that citizens are willing and able toaccept higher education, and expanding the scope of the school choice of students. Atthe same time, every individual liberal arts college needs to improve the ability to raiseendowments, attract private funding, and to identify the competitors.It is worth nothing that the real threat to the liberal arts colleges is that as aculture they choose trends over permanence, image over substance, money over values,and the market over meaning.