Liberal Arts Feature Pinpoints Campion

Campion College has featured in an article that was printed in this month’s issue of The Aurora Magazine. Check out the featured content details in Campion College Blog.

The Aurora Magazine is a well-known diocesan magazine. It covers stories around the Hunter Valley, Maitland, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Taree areas. The magazine features articles that have a basis in the happenings of the world surrounding us and its impact on members of the church. Opinions are presented and a wide-ranging number of topics are covered, including articles covering education and social services.

Darrel Croker, the author of the article, shines a spotlight on establishing liberal arts colleges in the United States and the thinking that prompted their creation. It also seeks to highlight the revolutionary nature of Campion College's formation, where they have taken the bold step to establish a Catholic institution in Australia, which focuses on the liberal arts, where it was previously a less oft institutional core focus.

The writer explores why this focus on liberal arts is so endemic in many colleges in the United States, yet the concept remains so new to Australian institutions. He gives insight into the differences between liberal arts degrees and other focuses of study like STEM and business degrees. Of this, he writes:

“Students who complete a liberal arts degree gain ‘soft skills’, such as critical analysis, effective communication and even proficient literacy, which are designed to be applied to any field of work,” Dr Morrissey said. “There is more and more evidence these kinds of soft skills are increasingly sought-after.”

Liberal arts is not in competition with STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), but is complementary. Business, it seems, wants self-motivated and articulate workers who can think on their own. It’s not enough just to have tech skills.

Ideally, students attending Campion complete an undergraduate liberal arts degree, and then go on to specialise in postgraduate study and/or specific qualifications. Those three years as an undergrad do provide enough soft skills to enter the workforce, but also time to formulate other career plans.

The article also demonstrates the blessing that Campion College's establishment has been, despite its more recent beginnings in the higher learning stage. The college is offering a space where the original ideas that formed the basis for modern society are kept safe. Croker wrote:

Campion is still a young institution but did make the news during the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation’s search for a home. “The Ramsay Centre is simply trying to do what Campion is doing, and that is preserving and imparting the history, literature and ideas of the West,” Dr Morrissey said. “A liberal arts degree is about thinking critically, and that includes examining Western civilisation itself.”

Dr Morrissey acknowledges the “long, proud history” liberal arts colleges have in the US. “Campion is on its own little frontier introducing a liberal arts degree to Australians,” he said. “But we feel what we’re doing is vitally important; that is, preserving the great cultural heritage of Western civilisation in a political climate that is increasingly hostile to its own past.”

To read the article in full, follow this link

Campion College is dedicated to fostering excellence and the ability to use critical thinking to learn from the past successes, which can educate our own future triumphs. This places graduates well ahead of the curve.