The debate about the effectiveness of the liberal arts curriculum is centuries old, but recent financial and social pressures have placed the survival of the liberal arts in the United States at even greater risk. Using Kimball's (1995) notion of the oratorical and philosophical traditions of liberal education, this article first identifies…

"What role can liberal arts faculty at Christian colleges and universities play in helping their students discern and pursue a sense of purpose in a complex and changing marketplace?" In an uncertain and challenging economy, students in the humanities and social sciences often struggle to find a sense of vocational purpose. Using…

This article presents a historical defense of liberal arts education--a philosophy that is commonly claimed among Christian colleges and universities--in order to provide an understanding of liberal education to skeptics and subscribers alike. A subsequent discussion of the role of mathematics in the liberal arts tradition contends that…

This qualitative study involved conducting semistructured interviews with 12 students attending a Christian liberal arts college. The study sought to identify how students' Christian faith changes over the course of time they are attending college. The factors identified as potentially influencing changes in faith within students attending a…

A survey was administered to 451 undergraduate students at a private liberal arts Christian university to identify students' perceptions of the ideal professor. The survey revealed that the ideal professor places great emphasis on the integration of faith and learning, is flexible (and even easy), maintains high academic standards, encourages…

American higher education has been in almost perpetual crisis for several generations, with students experiencing fragmentation and loss of coherence across the curriculum. Most liberal arts colleges in the 19th century had a required senior course in "moral philosophy" to integrate the curriculum and prepare students for future leadership, but…

Australia has no Christian universities or Christian liberal arts colleges other than Australian Catholic University, which has six campuses in five cities. This paper examines one long-term attempt to set up such an institution, which ended in the project being abandoned for lack of progress. Some likely reasons for failure are identified in the…

The theory of student involvement (Astin, 1984) acknowledges that as students devote time and energy to educationally purposeful activities, they can expect to make cognitive and affective gains throughout the college years. Participation in clubs and organizations is one form of involvement associated with a host of learning and developmental…

Higher education has a crucial role in developing active citizenship within students. Even though active citizenship skills and competencies have been identified as essential life skills for Europe there is very little progress to date in establishing measures or indicators as to how this might be accomplished. This study provides the first data…

This is a case study of the historical development of a private Christian faith-based school of higher education in post-Soviet Russia from its conception in 1990 until 2010. This binational school was founded as Russian-American Christian University (RACU) in 1996. In 2003, business and economics as well as social work undergraduate academic…

This study provides a descriptive snapshot of high school students' home lives from their perspective as first-year college students as they attended a Bible college or Christian liberal arts college. The sample of over 2,300 surveys was collected annually for 14 years through selected freshmen courses, and the data reports on the frequencies of…

There is paucity in the professional literature regarding the religious minority in religiously affiliated colleges and universities. This exploratory study analyzed one conservative private religiously affiliated university and the persistence rates of both the religious majority and religious minority. Crosstabs and chi-square analysis indicated…

Women who seek high-level administrative leadership positions in various sectors of higher education continue to meet a variety of barriers (Eagly & Carli, 2007). These challenges are especially evident among the 105-member Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), an association of faith-based liberal arts institutions. Seeking to…

This study at Grove City College, a private, Christian liberal arts college in Western Pennsylvania, assessed the effectiveness of the college's mission of service and engagement with others in society. An on-line survey with forced option and open-ended questions was used to collect data from Grove City College graduates between the classes of…

Mentoring continues to be seen as a vitally important process and relationship that can be used as a tool not only for guiding novice faculty into the culture of higher education but also for providing much appreciated value for the senior faculty member who provides the leadership. However, while the concept of mentoring is used frequently in…