Forum points to integration of STEM and liberal arts

Since the role of liberal arts universities is destined to change significantly in the digital era, it made perfect sense for senior figures to come together and discuss what the future holds at a recent event co-hosted by Lingnan University.

The QS Higher Education Pre-Summit APAC 2023, held on November 3, was a chance to examine the impact of new technology on course content, research projects, and approaches to teaching and learning. And, in doing so, it opened many eyes to the opportunities now being created and the speed of change already taking place.

One of the day’s most anticipated sessions was the special President’s Forum. With “The Art of STEM” as a main theme, it saw leading academics share opinions on how best to integrate scientific thinking and the latest tech tools into a predominantly liberal arts curriculum.

The format encouraged them to offer insights on how traditional disciplines, research practices, and campus life in general will have to evolve in the years ahead. And the points of discussion made clear why it is crucial for students to pick up STEM-related skills to complement their studies in liberal arts subjects and ensure they are well-equipped for future careers and can contribute to society in meaningful ways.

The experts taking part in the forum included Professor Joe Qin, President of Lingnan University; Professor Shoichiro Iwakiri, President of International Christian University in Japan; and Professor Tao Tang, President of Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College.

Joining them in a series of lively exchanges were Professor Alan Chan, Provost of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK); Professor Chulathida Chomchia, Dean of the International College at Mahidol University in Thailand; and Professor Nigel Healey, Vice President for Global Community and Engagement at Limerick University in Ireland.

Giving a lead, Professor Qin noted that liberal arts universities provide an education model which teaches sophisticated critical thinking skills and gives the freedom to choose what to study. There is no reason, though, for that choice to be limited to just traditional arts and humanities subjects. It can also include natural sciences and applied sciences, and has to fully embrace the digital technologies which are already having a worldwide impact.

“I call this an intellectual revolution because AI and data-based innovations are revolutionising what we think and how we read, write and accept things – that is our cognitive part related to communication, knowledge and so on,” Qin said. “It could speed up or improve the efficiency of intellectual work by orders of magnitude, but that’s also dangerous because it could replace jobs.”

Overall, though, he preferred to think that the advances of the digital era would serve to “popularise” certain things done by experts, similar to the way smartphones have helped to make everyone a photographer. There would still be a need for specialists to do high-level creative work, and those individuals would obviously be expected to use the various tools which are at their disposal and widely available.

‘So, we are training our students to be capable and literate in using these generative AI tools responsibly, ethically, and in a professional way,” Qin said. “We have to make sure our students are at the forefront.”

In turn, Professor Tang explained how his institution has taken steps to combine elements of courses in communication and computer science to create a new degree in digital media. That approach indicated the way forward and would ensure future graduates were well-equipped and had skills that could be put to good use.

“These days, we want students in social sciences, business and media programmes to have relevant training in mathematics, data science and statistics,” Tang said. “Liberal arts universities should put more emphasis on these subjects.”

For Professor Chan, there was no denying that rapid advances in technology are radically transforming the ways in which we live, work, learn and play. But what really stood out in current times was the unprecedented speed of these developments and the pervasiveness of their impact on society.

“Consequently, there is good reason to believe that a person’s technology quotient will correlate with his or her level of socio-economic health,” Chan said. “Even though present and, especially, future students will be digital natives when they join a university, how they learn and how we teach will be significantly influenced by developments in technology.”

With that in mind, CUHK has now introduced a compulsory course on digital literacy and computational thinking, thereby adding another dimension to education and helping students to manage and navigate the complexities of 21st-century life.

In highlighting the mission of his university, Professor Iwakiri noted how an integrated general education course taught mathematics students how to solve real applied problems in the humanities and social sciences. In other programmes too, there was a deliberate focus on promoting this type of interdisciplinary learning and teaching the digital know-how needed to build a better society.

“AI, though, is a tool and, in society, we have relationships with real people,” Iwakiri said. “We want to know with whom we are speaking, what this person is thinking and feeling.

Understanding of oneself and others is cultivated through real relationships and communication between different cultures.”

Teaching as a Design Science: Innovating Education for Student Engagement

The afternoon session began with a keynote presentation by Diana Laurillard, Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies, UCL Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University College London (UCL).

To pinpoint the transferable skills acquired from a liberal arts education, skills that will be vital in an increasingly digital world, Prof Laurillard quoted two of the stated goals of Lingnan University: first, to “equip students to think critically, communicate effectively, engage with society and solve problems in the fast-changing world”, and; second, “to reach for higher levels of intellectual discourse, analytical thinking and independent research capability”.

Digital tools for engaging students

Prof Laurillard then went on to look at the ways in which digital technology can be used to increase student engagement and achieve Lingnan’s goals. She identified five elements in the design of active and social learning: student inquiry using online resources; learning through discussion, which can be prompted with digital tools such as Menti; learning through practice, for example by varying inputs to a digital model; collaboration, which can be encouraged through the use of digital platforms for the uploading of, and commenting on, work in progress; and, finally, production, or the presenting of work for assessment by the teacher.

“What we are trying to do as teachers is engage the learner-teacher, learner-learner, learner-content exchanges that will lead to deep learning,” she explained. In other words, the cycles of trying to do something, assessing what’s been achieved, and making corrections.

The global context for change

Prof Laurillard argued that the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal, universal basic education, underpins the other 16. “And it is our job in universities to educate all those professionals who will be making a difference in all those sixteen other areas.”

What’s more, she said she’d place liberal arts education at the very centre of that process, because of the types of critical thinking and personal development it encourages.

Big tech is expanding digital access to education faster than human management can build new schools, and conflict, global warming and disease, are all only serving to accentuate this differential, she noted.

However, Prof Laurillard noted that research has shown that even in the UK, only 45 percent of teachers in higher education feel confident in their ability to effectively deliver online content and facilitate online engagement.

A number of aspects of the assessment process also need rethinking. In an increasingly technology-driven world, assessments need to become more relevant to life, and employment, she suggested. To achieve this, they should be devised in such a way that they integrate ideas and practices from across disciplines, and utilise a more diverse range of sources and tools.

Teaching as a design science

Prof Laurillard said she wanted to see teachers supported in the development of innovative digital teaching methods through their collaborative knowledge building. To this end, UCL has developed a free, open online design tool. The Learning Designer enables educators to design a sequence of blended and online teaching and learning activities, analyse their pedagogic design, and share their learning designs with each other. An existing learning design template can then be adapted for a new topic.

“So this is about both sharing and adapting learning designs,”she pointed out. And this is possible because, “the pedagogy, and the way we’re designing what students do in both contexts, is the same.”

Prof Laurillard concluded by describing how UCL is supporting this process by working with MOOC platforms though the online course, Blended and Online Learning Design. In its first year, the course has attracted 12,000 active participants across more than 100 countries.

The first week of the course introduces the Learning Designer and prepares the groundwork for collaboration, while the second focuses on developing students’ capacity for independent learning. The overall goal of the course is to encourage contributions to a teacher-led transition into a technology-based future for education.

While students need access to more active, and more social, learning, teachers had to be trusted and supported to develop the new pedagogies of engagement, Prof Laurillard insisted. “We’re not going to leave it to AI and the big tech companies who say ‘We can sort out education for you, don’t worry’. They can’t, because they don’t understand the nature of teaching and learning – teachers do.”

Panel Discussion: Internationalisation, Student Learning and Employability

Four distinguished academics, drawn from universities across Asia, together with a CEO from a cutting-edge technology company, convened on stage for the final discussion in this event. Under the moderation of Professor William Hayward, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences at Lingnan University, the panel explored the importance of students gaining a deeper understanding of global issues, developing their sense of empathy, and broadening their world view, not only to further their personal growth, but also to enhance their career prospects.

Is the globalisation era over?

Prof Hayward first asked his panellists how they thought liberal arts education should respond to growing scepticism around the world about globalisation.

In response, Professor Marcia France, Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Mainland’s Duke Kunshan University (DKU), said that, at a time when serious conflicts were erupting across the globe, it was vital to continue the process of internalisation.

“The personalisation of who we are is a really important part (of this),” she said. “At DKU, for example, we have students who are Islamic talking to students who are Jewish. We have students from Ukraine talking to students from Russia. We have Americans and Chinese talking all the time.”

It was crucial to speak with people who challenge your beliefs and help you realise it’s not a black and white world, with any disagreements or misunderstandings managed respectfully,” she said. “We talk to all our students in their first year about ground rules for discussions.”

Mr Jerry Li, CEO of Lenovo PCCW Solutions, considered the question from an employer’s perspective. “I believe liberal arts education in school provides a safe environment for different (types of) conversations.”

He said these conversations were particularly important today, when much of the media sensationalises the news. While there was some truth in the stories about (Sino-US) de-coupling, he believed people were not that different from each other.

“In the work place, it is harder to bridge the gap in the understanding, and appreciation, of another culture than it is in school. That’s why I believe educational institutions, especially universities, play a much, much bigger role in shaping how people learn to collaborate.”

The soft-skills that a liberal arts education teaches can also help in the resolution of disagreements at work, Mr Li continued, and can therefore increase a graduate’s employability.

Internationalisation and personal growth

Prof Hayward then asked his panellists what they considered the benefits were of international experiences, in terms of a student’s character and ethical development.

This question was picked up by Professor Pun Ngai, Chair Professor and Head of Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University. “In my department we design and organise cultural exchange programmes to Japan, to South Korea and to the Greater Bay Area. Through this cultural exchange programme, the students join cultural exchange workshops where they learn how to run social enterprises, co-ops, and youth commons.”

As well as broadening their perspective, Prof Pun said the programme shows students how a more just and caring society should function, and inspires them to not just theorise about this, but take action to effect positive change in the world.

The skills future employers will look for

Mr Li said new waves of technological innovation will generate demand for an ever-changing range of hard skills. However, across his 30-year professional career, employers still look for many of the same skills, such as those concerned with project management, communication and conflict resolution.

Mr Li said that the types of skills developed in the exchange programmes described by Prof Pun, were very attractive to companies such as his. “We’re trying to solve problems for our customers. So what we look for in our graduates is experience of being thrown into different problem sets.”

“There is a high correlation between education and occupation, so universities and industry need to work closely together,” said fellow panellist, Professor Datuk Dr Muhammad Bin Hussin, Director, UKMSHAPE, Malaysia. He said that it is the role of employers to give liberal arts graduates job-specific training, as technology is moving too fast for academicians to keep up with all the latest developments.

“In the universities, the academicians have to teach, they have to do research in their own field, which is sometimes unrelated to technology, and they have to write and publish their papers and books,” Dr Bin Hussin explained. He then added with a smile: “Otherwise QS will downgrade their university.”

Taking on weighty societal issues

Even though he has a PhD in physics, Professor Satoshi Inaba, Dean of the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, Japan, cited the view of renowned physicist Steven Weinberg that some questions asked by scientists can’t be answered by science. Prof Inaba gave the subject of assessments of the safety of nuclear power generation as an example.

“Scientists can estimate the probability of errors (that could be dangerous),” he noted. “But even if we find a very small probability, we still have to decide what happens next.”

Society needs people with a liberal arts education to help weigh the risks of a nuclear disaster, such as the one at Fukushima in 2011, against the benefits, in terms of lower carbon emissions from nuclear power, he said. “And if the students get a variety of knowledge from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences they can also decide (on the answers to such questions) for themselves.”