Are Liberal Arts Degrees Worth the Money?

She says, “If I had gone to a college near my hometown, I would not have got opportunities, even though there are some good colleges there.”

Ritika majored in History and International Relations from Ashoka University, a liberal arts school in Sonepat, Haryana. She can neither write code nor build an app. However, he is confident of his ability to “figure out what to do” even in areas where he is not technically trained. , but you get them anyway,” says Ritika. “Ashok taught me to swim and swim fast.”

Another liberal arts graduate is Akshay Shankar, who majored in psychology from Kriya University in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh.

“The psychology I studied was academic. But the skills I learned indirectly turned out to be very useful,” Shankar says. “We not only had traditional exams, but were assessed through assignments such as video essays, podcasts and posters. These have come in handy now.”

Shankar is in a marketing communications role at Vayana Network, a business-to-business trade financing firm.

In short, it’s a liberal arts degree taught by the new private universities that show promise, appearing over the past decade. Skills that aren’t easy to spot on a resume – like programming, analytics or design – but come to the fore when it comes to problem solving.

Every liberal arts graduate, regardless of their major, is assumed to take foundation or core courses in mathematical and scientific logic, critical thinking, philosophy, literature, economics, and society. This gives them a well-rounded view of the world. Students take inter-disciplinary courses for the first year and a half before deciding on a major. They can also pursue minors or electives in various disciplines. So, one can graduate with a major in Literature and a minor in Computer Science.

Ashoka University and Kriya University offer majors in fundamental and computer science, humanities and social sciences. At FLAME University in Pune, one can major in applied mathematics, business, computer science, marketing, humanities, and social sciences. The OP Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat has confined itself to core subjects of social sciences, arts and humanities. Shiv Nadar University (SNU), near Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, offers major degrees in engineering and management, apart from science, humanities and social sciences.

All these institutions have some things in common. They started out as a state private university (a non-profit university established under a state act, and accredited by the University Grants Commission), not a college affiliated with existing public universities, where the curriculum is more rigorous; They are endowed with private philanthropic capital; They boast of research collaborations, faculty and student exchange programs with top universities in the US and Europe; A large number of their faculty come from the best universities in India and abroad.

There is another similarity- without financial support, they are expensive.

So prospective students and their parents will have many questions. Where does the student reach after graduation? What are their immediate options? If they want to work, what could be their starting salary? And what are their long term career prospects?

Mint spoke to the schools, their alumni and current students to find some answers.

big budget

How expensive are liberal arts schools?

A three- or four-year bachelor’s degree at schools like Ashoka, Kriya, FLAME or JGU will be six to 10 times more expensive than Delhi University (DU) courses—could cost more 25-40 lakhs. They even beat private engineering colleges like Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) by some margin.

However, these universities have cleverly positioned themselves as an alternative to a degree in the US or Canada, which can be worth paying 2-3 crores for a bachelor of four years.

Take the case of Urvin Soneta, who is from Mulund, Mumbai. He was educated through engineering courses at the University of Toronto and Tu Delft in the Netherlands, but chose to attend Ashoka University. His family felt that the programs abroad would be “extremely expensive”, whereas the quality of education in Ashoka could be “parable”. Plus, he’ll be close to home. Soneta graduated in 2018 with a major in economics and a minor in computer science. He even got a third discount on his total fee.

Liberal arts universities offer need-based aid or merit scholarships to make education affordable and attract the best talent. Ashoka claims that about 50% of its graduate students are on financial aid. Kriya says that about a third of its students receive financial aid. Nishi Misra, program director for the School of Liberal Arts and Humanities at JGU, explained that JGU offers between 10% and 50% discounts on its tuition fees, and 70% of its liberal arts students have received aid. One-third of undergraduate students at Flame University are on scholarship/financial aid.

For those who are not on scholarship, loans are a way out. The total cost of Ritika’s four-year degree was roughly 30 million. In the absence of support, his father took a personal loan.

Stephens vs Ashok

What do the placement statistics of these universities say?

The average salary (cost to company) offered during campus recruitment at St. Stephen’s College, Lady Shri Ram College (as per their websites) and Shri Ram College of Commerce (as per its placement cell) was between 9 lakh more 10 lakh per year during 2021-22. All the three colleges are in Delhi.

Compared to this the campus offer was average 11 lakhs per annum for Ashoka undergraduates and slightly less for those in Kriya and JGU. According to the spokespersons of these institutes the offers are average 7 lakh per annum.

But 9.3 lakh, SNU, which also offers engineering and management courses, fetched a higher average salary than VIT ( 8.2 lakh), according to data from their websites.

However, all liberal arts colleges still lag behind the lucrative packages offered to fresh graduates at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). average salary over 20 lakhs for B Tech graduates at IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati and IIT Hyderabad. International offers and technology roles would have skewed the numbers.

To be honest, liberal arts institutes are still new in India. Kriya’s first undergraduate batch passed out last year itself. The first undergraduate cohort at Ashoka and JGU graduated in 2017-18. It may be unfair to compare their placement figures with colleges that have been around for decades. New schools do not yet have a strong alumni network. And building relationships with top recruiters takes years.

awesome job?

Mint’s conversations with alumni and spokespersons of Ashoka, Kriya and JGU reveal that almost every job seeker finds a job by the time they graduate. Even when companies do not visit the campus, students are assisted by the Career Service Office (CSO) in off-campus recruitment drives.

The question is whether the students get the job they want.

By the end of the fourth year, Urwin Soneta had offers from two companies: consulting firm E&Y and RBL Bank. He chose the bank and joined as a management trainee – his experimentation with business journalism courses in the fourth year got him interested in finance. He says that the position for which he was appointed is generally reserved for MBAs.

Arya Swamy going to JGU wanted a people-facing role. He has done many courses like Organizational Development and Management of Change. It paid off as she was placed as a recruitment trainee at BCG, a consulting company.

However, not everyone gets the desired job.

Akash Rao, a third-year computer science major at Ashoka, feels that the offers coming his way are not up to his expectations. “The computer science department is largely research-oriented, but the Career Development Office (CDO) is offering us UI/UX design roles,” he says.

Rao has been working on high-end machine learning (ML) projects with his professors and is looking for ML-centric roles. He feels that on-campus recruitment is skewed towards economics majors, who are offered consulting roles.

An Ashoka spokesperson clarified that many students are working in UI/UX roles. The spokesperson said students recruited by the consulting firms include history, philosophy, political science, psychology and mathematics majors as well as economics majors.

Maitri Modi, Head of Computer Science from Kriya, says that most of the companies that CSOs attracted for placements were startups; There were some well known companies. “If you calculate the return on investment, you pay almost 25 lakhs in three years. you don’t wanna go that low 4 lakh per annum (offered by a startup).”

Modi was eventually placed at Thoughtworks, a technology multinational company. She was informed about the opening through the CSO, but followed the process on her own, which she says was similar to an off-campus recruitment.

Kriya University did not comment on Modi’s experience.

lifelong training

Ramkumar Ramamurthy, former chairman and managing director of Cognizant India, who has been on the boards of liberal arts and technical colleges, recommends “looking at payback beyond jobs”.

He argues that new-age universities offer a vast canvas of opportunities for long-term professional development through an enviable peer group. They provide a platform to enter Tier 1 universities across the world, besides providing avenues for careers in exciting sectors, including international agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations, he said. .

A large proportion of the students who graduate from these colleges opt for higher studies. Of the 116 graduating JGU in 2021-22, 44 went on to pursue their Masters in India and abroad. Around 29 out of 104 in Krea progressed to higher studies at Delhi University, Oxford, Sussex, Carnegie Mellon, Chicago, and similar institutions. About 50% of undergraduates at FLAME either stay on for a fourth year or go on for masters at universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Texas.

Meanwhile, many students from these schools become confident enough to chart their own path.

Soneta realized after a year at RBL Bank that there is a life beyond finance. He already had a minor in Computer Science, but wanted to study further. He went to Plaksha University, another private university in Mohali, Punjab, for a diploma. Here he worked on a digital project and then started Synth, a technology company with a classmate. Synth was selected for the Y Combinator Accelerator Program in 2021—the company’s product provides summaries and insights of held meetings, among other features.

At various points in her career, Sonata hasn’t shied away from experimenting, trying something new. “Part of it comes from my upbringing. But Ashoka developed how I think today,” he says.

The real payoff of a liberal arts degree, therefore, may not be in immediate gratification. It prepares you for the long haul – to navigate a career well and be a life-long learner. After all, this is the future of jobs.