Without any doubt, U.S. universities have transformed the global economy in profound ways. While its laboratories have led to amazing, transformative discoveries, there is no doubt that the learning environment on the modern college campus has transformed for the better the lives of millions of people and their extended families. While it is true that a college degree is associated with higher lifetime wages, the true benefit is more readily apparent in unemployment statistics and the ability of people to career switch – something that is happening more frequently. It is in times of economic adversity when the value of a college degree is most evident and in ways that are difficult to quantify.
It is David’s view that faculty, collectively speaking, have played an overwhelming successful role in developing graduates by providing them not so much with knowledge but rather with the ability to think. That cliché, while perhaps tired, really applies to the transformational growth David sees in his students and which enables graduates to flourish and advance society.
Initially, faculty focus on teaching subject matter as well as can be expected. There are numerous tools and techniques that each faculty member develops to accomplish this. One key tool that works for David has been experiential learning – or learning by doing. While this may not apply to many disciplines, it readily applies to finance.
Over time however, David has learned that a side benefit of experiential learning is students often gain the broader context of whatever decision or problem they may be solving. This is tremendously helpful, particularly as students take on a portfolio of different classes and experience many different teaching styles, each stretching them in new ways. Over time, the student develops an impressive toolkit on their way to graduation.
As Dean, when David would speak with corporate executives, he began to notice a consistent theme in their advice. Namely, the ability to effectively solve ambiguous problems in diverse teams was by far the most valuable learning tool one could develop in college. The ability to lead a team to translate knowledge into action remains a critical skill in nearly every company David meets with today.
In many ways, David’s teaching values reaffirm the notion of what a liberal education means. Of course this has little to do with leaning “left or right.” Instead it has everything to do with having what David calls a “T-shaped learning experience”, where one has both the breadth to understand the complexity of the world, and also the depth of understanding in a particular discipline and the tools to reacquire in-depth knowledge in new areas as events transpire over time.
Today, there are pressures to adopt new teaching tools such as on-line learning. While the methods may be new, the basic concept of learning away from the classroom has been around for decades. There is plenty of room to engage technology to the benefit of students. Faculty should readily embrace the opportunity, just as other technologies have been readily embraced by society at large. What should be ensured, though, is that students still gain a holistic sense of the intellectual growth and maturity referred to above (particularly at the undergraduate level). Each class or class experience need not dwell on that growth, but collectively a college must endow its graduates not just with knowledge (which often goes stale with time as disciplines evolve) but also with the tools to learn and relearn for a lifetime of fulfillment and success.