Art of fresh thinking

By PROFESSOR JOHN MORROW

Today's school leavers face some tough decisions about their future. Student debt is spiralling, job insecurity is increasing, there is a bewildering array of careers to choose from, and a new push for apprenticeships rather than traditional university courses.

Under these circumstances, you would expect enrolments for arts degrees to suffer at the expense of more vocational courses. Indeed, only 20 years ago it did not seem too far-fetched to envisage a future in which arts degree programmes would be small, insignificant residues in our university system.

Yet, while demand for places on courses such as commerce and law has strengthened, the fears that lay behind predictions of the demise of arts degrees have proved groundless.

Student demand for arts subjects and enrolments for Bachelor of Arts degrees has strengthened in recent years. Since 2000 there has been a significant increase in enrolments in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland and at a number of other New Zealand universities.

At the same time, the range of subjects offered to students has been extended and modernised. Traditional disciplines such as classics, languages and political studies have been joined by exciting, new programmes in film, television and media studies, women's studies, and Maori and Pacific studies.

So, why, in today's climate, are arts degrees still an attractive proposition to so many students?

One of the most valued aspects of arts degrees, by students and employers alike, is the skill set that is developed during the course of the degree. An arts degree imparts transferable skills that are applicable to a wide range of jobs. In today's uncertain career world and in an environment when many young people aspire to work overseas, at least for a few years, this is increasingly important. Gone is the era of "jobs for life".

A survey of final year BA students at the University of Auckland showed that they believed their studies had improved their capacity to gather information, to analyse it, and to communicate what they know to others. Such skills have a long shelf-life and can be applied to great effect in a wide range of situations.

Paul Newfield, an Auckland university arts graduate, walked straight into a job as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group after leaving university.

"My degree in philosophy was an ideal preparation for work as a management consultant," he says. "It provided me with a solid grounding in analysing problems by breaking them down to their constituent parts - something I deal with on a day-to-day basis in management."

Employers, too, are increasingly valuing the skills that arts graduates bring with them to the workforce. In a recent speech, Peter Biggs, chairman of Creative NZ and managing director of Clemenger BBDO, said "I witness in the business world how creativity and innovation are attributes which are prized above all else. I've seen the emergence of a genuine imagination economy in New Zealand where the currency is in ideas."

Many employers now actively recruit arts students. According to Andrew Grant, CEO of McKinsey's, "the best graduates we find are not only great problem solvers but are also interesting people who are capable of fresh thinking and articulating a unique point of view. We increasingly find these sorts of people with arts backgrounds."

Look at the range of career options open to holders of BA degrees. The most recent survey of graduates by the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee, published in 2003, helps to dispel some tired myths about the employability of Arts graduates. It reports that graduates of humanities and social and behavioural sciences find employment in the media, journalism, publishing, promotions, teaching, management, business, retail, policy analysis and market research, as well as the state sector and local government.

There are, in fact, few jobs not open to arts graduates. Since many young people finish school without a clear sense of what career they might pursue, this means that an arts degree enables them to keep their options open. What sensible employer would not value employees who are able to write clearly and persuasively, who can gather and analyse complex data and who can think laterally and creatively?

In a competitive marketplace, the quality of a degree is of particular importance. Arts subjects ranked highly in the recent evaluation of research undertaken by the Tertiary Education Commission. This exercise, the Performance Based Research Fund, showed that teaching in Arts subjects is underpinned by a strong research base. Philosophy, and anthropology and archaeology were the highest rated subjects in the review.

At the University of Auckland there are also particular strengths in education, English language and literature, European languages and literature, film, TV and media studies, and sociology.

When students are taught by those who also produce high quality research, they gain distinctive insights into the knowledge base of their chosen subjects.

Rather than merely presenting ideas and perspectives that have been developed by others, academic researchers provide their students with insights into how such knowledge is actually created, as well as sharing their passion for their subject.

Almost without exception, leading researchers in New Zealand are also effective and inspiring teachers. The most eminent researchers are accessible to all undergraduates. In the Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, for example, half of our professors regularly lecture to first-year classes.

This means that in the early stages of their careers, students benefit from listening to high-profile scholars such as Professor Jamie Belich, the New Zealand historian, Associate-Professor Witi Ihimaera, the author of Whale Rider, and Professor Margaret Mutu, the Maori language scholar and advocate on Maori policy issues.

The content and structure of a degree is also important. Conjoint degrees offer the best of both worlds to prospective students wishing to combine an arts degree with a degree in, say, commerce, law or education.

Graduates who have combined a professionally oriented degree with a BA are particularly valued by employers for their communication skills, versatility and breadth of knowledge.

Kirsty Traill graduated with a BA in German and Japanese, and a BCom in marketing in 1998. She is now supplies sales and marketing manager for Hewlett Packard, where she uses skills learned on both degree programmes.

"My language degree assists me in understanding the many varied cultures in a multinational organisation, as well as recognising cultural diversity within my own team," she says. "My BA was the ideal complement to my BCom in that it furthered the international dimension to my business studies and exposed me to other cultures and ways of learning."

There is one more obvious reason why demand for arts subjects remains so strong. The study of cultures, languages, ideas and society over wide expanses of time and place has enduring appeal and relevance to the imagination of generations of students.

New Zealand universities are well equipped to offer challenging and diverse programmes in these fields. The flourishing of arts programmes in New Zealand universities sends out a clear and unequivocal message: if you want to maximise your employability through developing your skills in communication and analysis, if you want a degree for life, choose an arts degree.

* Declaration of interest: Professor John Morrow is the Dean of Arts at the University of Auckland.