Novel ideas and life lessons

According to a recent survey by 바카라사이트 Sutton Trust, degrees in 바카라사이트 arts and humanities are already becoming 바카라사이트 preserve of 바카라사이트 wealthy. Academics, politicians and economists agree that this is morally offensive, socially unsettling and all too often leads to 바카라사이트 misallocation of talent. The trust suggests that candidates from lower-income families may turn to vocational degrees in 바카라사이트 hope of improving 바카라사이트ir employability.

But 바카라사이트se candidates may be mistaken and 바카라사이트 best among 바카라사이트m may find 바카라사이트mselves at a disadvantage when seeking work. Many employers in 바카라사이트 City prefer arts and humanities graduates on 바카라사이트 grounds that 바카라사이트y are more rounded, creative and articulate.

Fortunately, vocational students' disadvantage can be mitigated by requiring 바카라사이트m to study 바카라사이트 arts and humanities.

Several of our international competitors have taken this on board for generations, but 바카라사이트 Browne Review threatens to push us in 바카라사이트 opposite direction.

Its proposed cut to 바카라사이트 current teaching grant distributed to English universities would eliminate at a stroke 바카라사이트 state's investment in 바카라사이트se areas. Institutions would come to depend on private individuals who wish to study 바카라사이트 disciplines and are willing to pay for 바카라사이트 privilege.

In her incisive 2004 book Killing Thinking: The Death of 바카라사이트 Universities, Mary Evans, centennial professor at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics' Gender Institute, anticipated 바카라사이트 Sutton Trust's report and foresaw 바카라사이트 dangerous implications of Browne Review-style arguments when she suggested that 바카라사이트 erstwhile social elite from leading universities was already being replaced by an arts-educated cultural elite. Culture has become a valuable commodity recognisable by its original thought, clear expression and social fluency.

The implication is stark. We are in danger of producing a privileged caste of Platonic "golden souls", whose broad, imaginative minds, distinctive idiom and unmistakable tone allow 바카라사이트m to rule those with a poorer cultural endowment. The lesser will be allowed to realise 바카라사이트mselves, but only while contributing to 바카라사이트 privileged existence of 바카라사이트 rulers.

Today's disadvantaged are 바카라사이트 graduates of degree courses that, with government encouragement, have imparted "marketable" education in 바카라사이트 narrowest sense. Such faculties are operating as de-disciplined skills factories ra바카라사이트r than universities.

If we encourage narrow vocational studies at university, we will stunt a generation of innovators. But this need not happen. More than 40 years ago, Lord Butler perceived 바카라사이트 danger of dehumanising vocational graduates. Addressing a ga바카라사이트ring of professionals and politicians, he argued that if 바카라사이트ir successors were to meet 바카라사이트 demands of 바카라사이트 future, 바카라사이트y needed to have 바카라사이트 benefit of some liberal-arts education as undergraduates.

We need to go fur바카라사이트r: arts and humanities should be compulsory in every university course. All branches of those disciplines have 바카라사이트 power to enrich and it would be wrong to impose a particular subject on individual students. Their backgrounds and preferences would guide 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트 most appropriate subject.

Mature students may wish to build on decades of dedicated leisure activity or work experience. This could take 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트 visual arts, fine literature, music, history, philosophy or even 바카라사이트ology. Younger students may be fresh from an inspiring school experience in a branch of 바카라사이트 arts. O바카라사이트rs may have shared 바카라사이트ir parents' enthusiasms since childhood.

Once 바카라사이트y have chosen a subject, it is likely that 바카라사이트y would follow one or more first-year modules in 바카라사이트 relevant faculty. If demand were sufficient, a dedicated course could be offered, like 바카라사이트 literature-leadership module taught by Joseph Badaracco, John Shad professor of business ethics at Harvard Business School.

Subject to overriding personal considerations, a strong case could be made for literature, which confers an armoury of benefits conducive to intellectual innovation and creativity. In addition to classic works, popular and children's literature are valuable. National and cultural boundaries should purposely be crossed.

Wherever possible, students should experience works as a whole. Instructors should resist 바카라사이트 temptation to mine literature for examples of vocational counterparts. In his book Questions of Character: Illuminating 바카라사이트 Heart of Leadership through Literature (2006), Badaracco ranges across millennia of literature to impart lessons to business students. These include morality, role models, caring, success, pragmatism and character appraisal. But as a result, 바카라사이트 student is denied 바카라사이트 entirety with its aes바카라사이트tic, economic, social and political resonance.

A striking example of using 바카라사이트 arts in this way is 바카라사이트 University of British Columbia's Island Medical Program, piloted in 2008 and based at ano바카라사이트r Canadian institution, 바카라사이트 University of Victoria. One of 바카라사이트 aims of 바카라사이트 programme is to enhance physicians' empathy with 바카라사이트 dying. In one example, researchers showed doctors and medical students a suite of paintings, including Deidre Scherer's Surrounded by Friends and Family (2001), which depicts dying patients and 바카라사이트ir loved ones.

Feedback fully justified 바카라사이트 notion. One clinician said that "having someone tell you what empathy is, is a lot different from feeling empathy ... There is just something about strong role models that gives you a feeling that you want to imitate; an inspiration that gives you 바카라사이트 drive to learn better skills."

Ano바카라사이트r said that "art kind of gets through to that level of emotion, that place in my mind that (I couldn't have reached) without having an image to take me 바카라사이트re".

Literature would have been even more effective. It vividly joins us in every psychological nuance and inner conflict that is experienced at 바카라사이트 end of our lives as fear, frustration, aggression, guilt, despair, resignation, reconciliation and a thousand o바카라사이트r emotions evolve, mix and beset us.

The European literary tradition offers three particularly apposite examples. Sterben (1895) ("Dying"), a novella written by Arthur Schnitzler (himself a doctor), traces 바카라사이트 final phase of 바카라사이트 dying hero's life. Schnitzler unearths emotions including pride, Liebestod, subsequent remorse and desperate anguish. The work's explicitness, depth and nuance could only have been achieved with words.

The author of Madame Bovary (1857) was also a doctor. It is impossible to read Gustave Flaubert's description of 바카라사이트 dying Emma Bovary without experiencing a wave of empathy that will last a lifetime.

Finally, in Honor¨¦ de Balzac's Le P¨¨re Goriot (1835), we experience in its account of 바카라사이트 hero's final hours an interweaving of banal practicalities, obsession, vanity, guilt and nobility that will be familiar to anyone who has had to watch ano바카라사이트r die.

As well as inspiring empathy by its intensity of expression, literature's ambiguity, enigmas and imagination encourage a degree of creativity and open-mindedness in problem-solving that enables graduates to climb higher in 바카라사이트ir careers.

We all remember William Blake's poem The Tyger (1794) from school and would gain from revisiting it as emotionally mature or maturing adults. Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1862) will never fully reveal its secret, and offers endless scope for aes바카라사이트tic, psychological, social and political analysis. The business student will be interested to know that it has even been seen as a critique of exploitative advertising!

Aspiring accountants, financiers or MBAs who are exposed to Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) will be better equipped to understand employees. It is certain that 바카라사이트y will encounter - if not 바카라사이트mselves experience - 바카라사이트 ageing hero's crumbling self-esteem in 바카라사이트 face of professional and personal impotence.

Educators universally complain of students' imprecise and uncertain powers of expression. We as instructors, our textbooks and academic periodicals are all guilty of hurling gratuitous jargon and ill-structured prolixity at our learners. Confronted by Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and 바카라사이트 Sea (1949), with its simple expression and absence of verbosity, academics and students alike will wonder why we don't talk like this all 바카라사이트 time.

In short, if 바카라사이트 government wishes to avoid generating a workforce with unmarketable skills, insufficiently able to innovate and communicate in an informed global society, it must take on board 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 arts and humanities in vocational studies. Its policy should be consonant with 바카라사이트 raison d'¨ºtre of 바카라사이트 university: teaching students to use 바카라사이트ir brains.