Expert tips on taking up Liberal Arts programs by Dr Sunder Ramaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, KREA University

Only a handful of universities in India offer undergraduate programmes in Liberal Arts. They are different from a traditional 3-year BA or BSc in many ways. A traditional degree imparts learning in certain specific subjects within three years. A Liberal Arts programme makes it is more broad-based and at the end of three years of study, the students can come back and specialise in an area of their interest in the 4th year. It means a Liberal Arts undergraduate degree program has a three plus one-year curriculum.
Another major difference is that a traditional UG degree is unidirectional in the sense that it prepares a student to become an engineer or fine arts professional and so on. In a Liberal Arts programme one can do a degree in say, physics and also specialise in instrumental music. He will be able to get a holistic understanding of the interconnectivity of both these.

The basic idea is that whatever be the profession, the future society needs people who have a bent of mind for intercultural understanding, and the capacity to raise questions and think out of the box. Liberal education prepares the ground for this kind of ability. However, a large number of students do not know the benefits of doing undergraduate programmes in Liberal Arts. An equal number of students and their parents think that they cannot afford the fees for a Liberal Arts programme. Read on to dispel these doubts.

I am studying in Class 10. I want to know about the selection of students for Liberal Arts programmes at your university.

Very early on we decided that we wanted to attract high potential students, not necessarily high performing students. This is because we all know, if you have a bad patch two weeks during the board exams, your life changes whereas potential is a lot more. So, we have a very elaborate way in which we choose how we admit students. It doesn't matter what board the students studied, it could be a state Board, it could be a CBSE, it could be an IB school or it could be an international school. So, our entering batch, for instance is about 130 students.

The admissions team admits the students based on a whole host of criteria which looks at everything from 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade marks. In the first round we look at some 1000 applications and narrow it down to around 300. From this we shortlist around 150 students by looking at their academic scores, essays, extra-curricular activities etc. The shortlisted candidates were brought to a nearby city in groups of 10 for an immersion test with real-life cases, which was run by faculty. We look at how these students did in the immersion case, how they did in the quantitative exam and the interview. All of this gets collated and a list is drawn up. The shortlisted students can meet the financial assistance people to talk about whether they can afford to come to Krea.

Is there any financial help available for students?

Part of our fundraising is to essentially raise money for financial assistance for students. So, we have scholarship money to reward the students who are able to clear the admissions without necessarily worrying about whether they can pay. We put this on our website because we want to attract students whose parental income is less than Rs 5 lakhs, it is between 5 and 10 lakhs and then between 10 and 25 and then 25 to 50. Of course, there are full-pay students whose parental income is over Rs 50 lakh.

Do students from different social streams go for Liberal Arts studies?

I think 10 percent of the class this year is first-generation college kids, meaning their parents never went to college. But they got an opportunity in a fair system, they made it, they were able to withstand the competition from all the elite schools and elite cities and still managed to come through. I think this makes for a really robust and a very diverse classroom environment. The faculties are also excited about that because they are able to contribute back to what Krea wants to do with regard to nation-building.

How diverse will be the students in a Liberal Arts program?

One can measure diversity in all sorts of criteria, whether it’s regional, whether it's religious, whether its class or caste. I think what makes the admissions process interesting in a place like Krea is that you're also admitting a class of students in terms of trying to build a class. So, then it does reflect when you step out onto the road or when these students graduate and they step out into the real world. They actually look back on their three years or four years at the university and say I have actually interacted with people like this when I go and work in the workplace and that is very important

That is how I think learning happens. I think a lot of learning happens from professors but a lot of learning actually happens from their peers. So, the peers are very diverse but I think it's not enough to just admit students. It's equally important as to what happens with the students when they are studying, in other words what is the kind of support that we give so that the diversity is enhanced and maintained and any problems that happen here gets addressed.

Does a program in Liberal Arts make a huge change in the students’ outlook?

Like any other country there's an enormous wealth gap and you know there are students who will not think anything about dropping a thousand rupees on an afternoon for entertainment whereas others can’t spend even 50 rupees for something. So, in order to make these students feel welcome the experience for the student is equally important. Students also learn from each other and what's been the most heartening thing as a vice-chancellor of a young university is to meet the students on the first day of orientation and six months later you can't make out as to who's come from what background because the confidence they carry in the classroom to the discussions they have with me, the questions they raise to a speaker who's come to campus I think it says a lot about the what is happening in those six months. When we talk about this issue of inclusivity, that it's not just done at the admissions and then dust their hands and say okay our job is done. It’s a continual process as to what we need to do with the students and how we learn from it, correct certain mistakes and improve on it and have the students become agents of change.

The advice to Liberal Arts aspirants was given by Dr Sunder Ramaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, KREA University in a webinar hosted by Careers360 recently.

If you have any doubt regarding any course or career, write to us at: ask@careers360.com

Select universities offering Liberal Arts programs

• Ashoka University

• Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities

• Flame University

• Azim Premji University

• Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts

• Shiv Nadar University