How has Bentley Changed?
Over the past few years, over 40 business schools have convened an Undergraduate Business Education Consortium to integrate liberal arts with business studies - Bentley University being one of them.
Bentley has always provided both Business and Liberal Arts degrees. This year, they expanded the offerings with the addition of a Psychology major.
Bentley has also removed many business classes from their general requirements. Bentley has removed classes like economics, accounting, finance, marketing-operations, and more business requirements.
Is our Changing Curriculum and a Good or Bad Thing?
According to Dan Everett, “when you pursue a passion in the humanities or the arts or social sciences, you make a series of choices that cut off some options. A high salary can be among the sacrifices. And today, when parents and students invest so much in a college education, graduates need to be able to not only land a job, but build a career and a life worth living”. At first glance, liberal arts majors are not doing well in the job market. According to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, less than 14% of employers say they would hire those with liberal arts degrees. Conversely, more than 60% say they want accounting majors and more than 28% are looking for economics majors.
However, “the initial advantage held by those with narrow and technical business skills does not hold up over time.” A study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities shows that humanities and social science majors earnings are similar over a lifetime. In addition, “several managers have reported to [me, Dan Everett] that people who are promoted the fastest majored in liberal arts; they get promoted at a faster rate than business majors”.
Overall, you need the business skills to land the job. But you need the arts and science background to grow. Bentley is trying to combine the best of both worlds by offering innovative fusion courses - courses that merge traditionally unrelated disciplines. For example, a management professor could join a colleague in film studies to show students how to seek deeper meaning within human exchanges, and, in turn, see and act in new ways in a business environment.
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