In the last issue of the article "universities of science and technology, why humanities rank among the top in the world" (see China Science Daily, 7th Edition, November 9, 2021), I talked about the discipline ranking of "art and humanities" recently released by times higher education. Stanford University and MIT are the top two.

Today, we will discuss how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the world's top university known for science and technology, builds a strong liberal arts discipline and liberal arts specialty.

Science is top and liberal arts is strong

Liberal arts is a concept with Chinese characteristics, including humanities, social sciences, music and art. As a University of science and technology, MIT has made extraordinary efforts in the fields of humanities, social sciences, music and art in recent years, so it also has a very strong liberal arts.

In fact, as early as 2015-2016, MIT ranked third in the ranking of "Arts and humanities" in times higher education; From 2016 to 2017, MIT ranked No. 9. However, since the ranking was changed to the annual ranking in 2018, MIT has always been at the top. In addition to ranking fourth after Stanford University, Cambridge University and Oxford University in 2020, the University ranked second after Stanford University in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

If Stanford University is still a comprehensive university despite its extremely strong science and technology disciplines, and its liberal arts are also well-known, then MIT is completely a University of science and technology, and its liberal arts are so powerful but not so well-known. In fact, until now, some people have asked the question "whether MIT has liberal arts" on the Internet. This can not blame people's ignorance, but because MIT's science and engineering is too strong to cover up its liberal arts.

Take a simple example. According to MIT statistics, there are 96 Nobel laureates associated with the University, of which the majors with the most awards are physics, chemistry and biomedicine, but economics, as a liberal arts subject, is also the major winner of the University. Since 1970 alone, 10 in-service professors (one of whom is a graduate of the University and worked here) have won the Nobel Prize in economics. The most recent is this year. Professor Angrist of the Department of economics shared the Nobel Prize in economics with two other professors.

As for the situation that the liberal arts strength of the university is hidden under the aura of science and technology, MIT president Lev once said, "maybe because of technology" Engraved on the stone above the front door of MIT, outsiders do not know much about our excellent research and education level in the humanities and arts. However, it is the wisdom of outstanding scholars in these fields and the lessons taught by these disciplines that can help our students grow into creative citizens and inspire them to become aspiring leaders 。”

According to my observation, the reason why the liberal arts of MIT is equally powerful mainly stems from the efforts in the following aspects.

Attach importance to liberal arts and put ideas first

Great ideas change the world.

Open the website of MIT's School of humanities, arts and Social Sciences (abbreviated as shass), and the sentence that is at the top and highlighted in red and orange will come into people's eyes.

The world needs not only science and technology, but also imagination and understanding. Leff once put forward that "mankind faces urgent challenges - the solutions to these challenges depend on the combination of advanced technical and scientific capabilities with a deep understanding of the world's political, cultural and economic complexity."

Therefore, shass has a very clear positioning of its college mission.

The first is research and innovation. In their view, the purpose of research and the source of innovation come from the great idea of creating a better world. To this end, shass provides students with courses recognized as the best in the world in 13 academic fields. These 13 academic fields have a wide range of contents, including international research, linguistics, comparative media research, economics, literature, anthropology, Digital Humanities, philosophy, global research and language, music and dramatic art, writing, political science, security research, women and gender research, history, etc.

The second is to teach critical skills. They raised the training of critical skills to the level of "laying a successful and meaningful foundation for all MIT students". They cater to Leff's point of view, especially that to meet the great challenges of reality, they need technological and scientific creativity, as well as a deep understanding of the complexity of the world and mankind (including culture, politics and economy).

To this end, shass provides young students, thinkers and citizens with a series of key skills needed to achieve success in various efforts. By learning the cultural and historical views, creativity, judgment, communication and critical thinking skills obtained by various disciplines of the college, shass helps students of the Massachusetts Institute of technology embark on the road of innovation and create a meaningful and intelligent life.

The last is to cultivate leaders and global citizens. MIT provides a transformative international education. Shass plays a central role in MIT's international education and strives to cultivate students into leaders and excellent global citizens. Through the school's applied international education program, MIT students learn how to work, collaborate and thrive in a global culture.

Only by recognizing the importance of discipline can we apply the correct concept to practical teaching and research.

Complete disciplines and professional support

Those who know something about MIT know that in addition to the new Schwarzman Computer College in 2019, the original five colleges of the university are the school of architecture and design, the school of engineering, the school of management, the school of science, and the shass we want to focus on today. The six colleges have 30 departments.

Shass is responsible for the liberal arts construction of the whole university. It is worth noting that among the 30 departments of the University, 13 are under the jurisdiction of shass. The engineering college, one of the most powerful disciplines of MIT and always the top in the global discipline ranking, has only 10 departments.

Of course, the quantity itself does not explain the problem. The important thing is that it has complete disciplines, professional supporting facilities and strong teachers.

The 13 departments under shass include anthropology, comparative media research / writing, economics, global language, history, humanities, humanities + engineering / science, linguistics, literature, music and dramatic art, philosophy, politics, science and technology and society. These disciplines include important fields of humanities, music art and social sciences.

To this end, shass provides MIT undergraduates with 27 majors to choose from. These majors include core compulsory subjects and a series of elective courses, and combine the research of basic principles with practical application. The courses of these majors are designed to help students master vocational skills in relevant fields or lay a good foundation for their future graduate study.

These majors can be divided into two parts. The first is the main major, including anthropology, comparative media research, economics, global language, history, humanities, humanities and engineering, humanities and science, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, politics, science, technology and society, drama art, writing, etc.

In the second part, seven studies are selected from the above main majors and classified as interdisciplinary majors. They are African and African American diaspora studies, American studies, ancient and medieval studies, Asian and Asian diaspora studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, Russian and Eurasian Studies, and women and gender studies.

General education, all staff learning

In fact, shass also undertakes the function of general education in the whole school. Shass proudly wrote on its website in bold capitals: 100% of MIT undergraduates should study humanities, art and Social Sciences!

The college also clearly points out that the humanities, arts and social sciences of shass are the core of MIT's mission, that is, to provide all graduates with knowledge, skills and perspectives so that they can make lasting contributions to the country and the world.

The college further explained that all MIT undergraduates spend a lot of time on disciplines such as literature, language, economics, music, political science and history. In fact, every undergraduate at the school has to take at least eight such courses - which accounts for 25% of their total class hours.

At MIT, excellent courses in the fields of humanities, art and Social Sciences, including linguistics, history, philosophy, music and dramatic art, literature, media research, writing, global research and language, are developed in parallel with relevant courses in other disciplines, giving students more choices and driving interdisciplinary innovation and development.

Taking the school of architecture and planning as an example, it has strong majors in visual art, architecture, design, history, theory and criticism. Because of its joint and cooperation with humanities, art and Social Sciences, it has been strongly supported by the school's art, society and technology center, art office, visual art center and School Museum.

To this end, Sakis, Dean of MIT School of architecture and planning, said that art and humanities are deeply rooted in MIT, open up the departments and run through the whole curriculum. He was pleased to see this broad power recognized. People saw its importance not only to MIT, but also to the world.

Nobles, former president of shass, once said that at MIT, we believe that humanities and art are essential because they are very important for educating young students, promoting knowledge development and solving major global problems. The problems in the world are so complex that they are not only scientific and technological problems, but also human and moral problems.

MIT has always emphasized that all shass courses are designed to help students succeed. The so-called success is to make innovative contributions to the world and make life meaningful and wise. These are closely related to the relevant courses and skills taught by shass, including critical thinking and communication skills, creativity, cultural and historical views, fluent language skills and knowledge of economic and political forces.

Agawal, CEO of EDX, a joint learning platform of Harvard and MIT, and professor of MIT, lamented that these abilities and skills are hard won and can only be sustained after strict training, but they are crucial to innovation and success. No matter what career or research one will engage in in in the future, courses such as humanities, art and Social Sciences open a window for students to seek lifelong creativity and growth.