Undergraduate University as a Factor in Local Economic Development
The University is an ingenious institution really. It allows for the exploration of a broad range of viewpoints on all subjects, while the student is "dis-engaged" from the work world itself. This is like running a vehicle in neutral. It allows for deep exploration of contrary points of view to the generally accepted ones (whatever they may be), without a great deal of danger to the host society which could arise from a premature inflicting of those ideas on the larger community.
The experience of Russia over the last decade since the collapse of the USSR, gives some idea of just how important this feature of University life is. The book Sale of the Century, chronicles their tumultuous transition from State owned to Privately owned corporations. The transition was based on what appears to be a limited knowledge of capitalist economic theory, by a miniscule cadre of practitioners.
If one was to multiply such an experience in the field of Economics by the number of possible fields in which similar radical changes in philosophy might take place, one starts to appreciate the "progressive yet buffering role" the universities play. A local economy undergoing the process of development may well benefit from an increase of University educated minds in its midst, but, we must also appreciate the role the institution itself plays in smoothing out the arrival of such people, and in muting their potentially disruptive impact.
Then there is the Professor of Medicine from Saskatchewan who chose to take a BA after his B.Sc. while he awaited acceptance into Medicine, and looking back on a lifetime of work in the field, said that the work in the Humanities and Social Sciences gave him a breadth of Viewpoint which he noticed lacking in those who had only a Science background.
Liberal education in Arts and Science, whatever the particular Discipline, is one process by which our Society prepares its leaders to walk us into the future.
navigation