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A liberal arts college is an institution of higher education, most commonly found in the United States, offering programs in the liberal arts at the post-secondary level. Generally, liberal arts colleges enroll fewer students than universities, and encourage — perhaps require — students to take a substantial number of courses in topics unrelated to their vocational goals, to provide educational depth and breadth. This distinguishes liberal arts colleges from specialty colleges, which offer focused, single-discipline programs in business, engineering and technology, the trades, the fine arts, theology, etc. Increasingly, liberal arts colleges are becoming popular outside of the United States, with institutions opening in The Netherlands, Germany, Russia, and Canada, among other countries.

Liberal arts colleges focus primarily on tertiary education, and tend to emphasize interactive instruction rather than research. Full-time professors teach most courses, rather than transient teaching assistants. Generally, a full-time, four-year course of study at a liberal arts college leads students to a bachelor's degree. Several colleges offer postgraduate programs, (e.g. Middlebury, Wesleyan, Bard, Williams, and Oberlin;) however, their postgraduate enrollments remain small compared to their undergraduate enrollments, and postgraduate enrollments at research universities. Due to their relatively small size, liberal arts colleges often offer fewer courses than universities. Many remain private, residential, and expensive. Some lack the name recognition of larger universities, (excepting the Little Ivies and Seven Sisters;) however, 'top' liberal arts colleges are highly selective and compete with elite universities for students. A number of state-supported institutions also operate on liberal arts college models.

Units within research universities whose faculty and curriculum encompass the traditional liberal arts (and occasionally pure sciences) are often labeled "liberal arts colleges." Some are explicitly named a "College of Liberal Arts," or a variant such as "College of Arts and Letters" or "College of Arts and Sciences" to distinguish them from units focused on the manual arts and applied sciences. Both colloquial and professional references to "liberal arts colleges" generally refer to standalone institutions, excluding such units.

Rankings

The controversial America's Best Colleges issue of the U.S. News and World Report ranks the top 25 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" * as follows in the 2006 edition. Notice that this list does not include many well-known universities with a liberal arts curriculum.

The top five out of 20 public liberal arts colleges were (1) Virginia Military Institute, (2) St. Mary's College of Maryland, (3) New College of Florida , (4) University of Minnesota, Morris, and (5) University of North Carolina at Asheville.

See also

References

External links

Liberal arts colleges | Universities and colleges in the United States | Types of universities and colleges

Universités d'arts libéraux | リベラルアーツ・カレッジ | 자유 인문 대학 | Liberal Arts College

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Liberal arts college".

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