4 lessons on 'liberal' education's future

It should come as no surprise that when nearly 2,000 people in the business of professional intellectualism get together for a few days, they do a lot of deep thinking about their place in the world.At this year's annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), much of that thinking had a dark tint to it, even if the conclusions were optimistic. Speakers in panel after panel resoundingly confirmed their work's value to the world — that work being providing a liberal education.At the conference, titled perhaps defiantly, "Reclaiming the Narrative on the Value of Higher Education," the question up for debate was whether the world at-large saw value in a liberal education, and if not, what could be done to shift their thinking.Answers ranged from taking the world "liberal" out of the term to changing what is taught, and how, in order to meet student needs. Common threads observed by Education Dive show an industry that is beginning to realize it needs to take on its critics more directly.