2008 Occasional Papers - AUK

higher education is distinguished by co-existenceof Liberal Arts colleges alongside the large researchuniversities. The liberal-arts college model presentsa special challenge in the Gulf region. Liberal Artscolleges in the United States are noted for producinga disproportionately high share of graduate studentsand advanced-degree holders in non-Liberal Artsfields. In the Middle East, and especially in theGulf countries, the concept of liberal-arts educationis truly foreign. It is poorly understood, frequentlymisinterpreted, and virtually untranslatable as aterm standing for a certain philosophy of universityeducation. Even such a basic systemic aspect ofliberal education as putting a scholar-teacher in theclassroom is not readily understood abroad. Liberaleducation is routinely perceived as concomitant withdisregard for research among the faculty and lackof serious professional preparation for students.Currently, American University of Kuwait is theonly institution in the Gulf expressly committedto the liberal-arts mission of college education. Aprivate, Kuwaiti-owned university, AUK integratesthe liberal-arts curriculum in all its degree programs,including the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science,and Bachelor of Business Administration.The concept of liberal education as a career-buildingfoundation in the sciences, business andentrepreneurship invites a broad intellectual exchange,and this is our primary motivation for developing atradition of academic conferences centered on theconcept of Liberal Arts education in the 21 st century.As we all know, education is about more than subjects,disciplines, and a curriculum; life is not divided into“majors.” Our programs are designed to preparestudents for the contemporary world where criticalthinking, communication skills, and life-long learninghave become imperative. The very transferability ofliberal-arts skills has become a “selling” point foremployers of liberal-arts graduates. These skills,variously named and numbered by the experts,include interpersonal and team-working skills,written and oral communication skills, adaptability tochange, problem-solving skills, and critical, analytical,and creative thinking.In Kuwait and the Middle East, we struggle to makethe concept of Liberal Arts understood, despite thewonderful heritage of medieval Islamic science andphilosophy. The Liberal Arts in the Western traditionwere based on Classical philosophy and the earlydisciplines that shaped the education from Antiquityto the Enlightenment. Strikingly, the ancient Greekterm that was translated by the Romans as “art,”was techne, meaning “skill” rather than “art” in ourcontemporary understanding. Technai eleuteries meantthe “liberal arts” in the sense of knowledge andintellectual qualities required of a Greek citizen inthe age of Athenian democracy. In Rome, and thenin medieval Europe, “Liberal Arts” came to mean thebroad education in a whole range of knowledge notlimited to a certain profession or craft, an educationthat enables a person to gain competency in variousfields and develop a civic consciousness and informedhabits of thought. The usual translation of “LiberalArts” into Arabic as “funoon hurra” (from fann “art”),although correct etymologically, carries for themodern student confusing implications of Fine Arts,of art as craft, or even of science as technique. TheArabic word aadaab, the plural of the singular adab,usually translated as “literature,” fully corresponds tothe plural “Letters” in the phrase al-funoon wa-’l-aadaab“Arts and Letters” or in al-adaab wa-l’-`uloom, “Artsand Sciences.” The phrase “aadaab hurra” for “LiberalArts” better conveys the social and intellectual aspectsof reflective knowledge, of enlightened judgment,and of educated and cultivated qualities required formeaningful participation in society. Still, it appearsto omit the science-education element so oftenoverlooked in interpretations of liberal education.The educational breadth may be better conveyed byusing diraasaat hurra or diraasaat faseeha, another choicefor scholars and native speakers of Arabic to ponder.This interpretive challenge is an important reminder ofthe intellectual complexities faced daily by academicsworking in multi-cultural contexts and environments.In the race for developing the national professionalclasses, rather than building integrated colleges ofArts and Sciences, Gulf countries have often chosento import selected professional programs fromdistinguished American universities. U.S. institutionsare encouraged or invited to bring to the Gulfbusiness, professional or pre-professional programs(with few exceptions, these are undergraduate). Inaffirming AUK’s commitment to the Liberal Artsmission, we often argue that the learning skillsdeveloped through liberal education sometimes arevalued by faculty and employers alike over narrowprofessional knowledge.3