Chapter 15: Critical Friends: Curricular Redesign and Implementation of a Small Independent University’s Doctoral and Undergraduate Programs

In virtually all countries of the world, higher education is based on an economic growth-directed model requiring students who enter universities to study a single subject that will allow them to enter the workforce and be productive. Conversely, the “distinctively American” (Koblik & Graubard, 2000) tradition is that of a liberal-arts model of university education, requiring students to take a wide range of courses in their first two years. This American countertrend, in which students take a core curriculum separate from a departmental major, exposes students to seminal books and ideas in the humanities, arts, and sciences with the purpose of “preparing students for life.” The United States’ education systems focus on illustrating to students how education and ideas matter in life by exposing them to a range of books and methodologies deemed valuable.