Understanding the Liberal Arts｜What's Liberal Arts?｜ICU INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Understanding the
Liberal Arts

Why study liberal arts?

One often hears higher education discussed in terms of “humanities” and “sciences.” However, the world and the people who live in it are not conveniently divided into such categories. The humanities and sciences are perspectives for viewing the world, and the humanistic and scientific disciplines exist as a function of those perspectives. Here at ICU, students with diverse interests and concerns learn together and stimulate each other, which leads to new discoveries and new questions. In this way, students explore the truths of the world. Liberal arts are not about what major will lead to what kind of occupation. Rather, liberal arts are concerned with how to live, and what to learn in order to do so. Liberal arts teach students to ask themselves those questions, to think, and to foster the ability to think and the skills to acquire necessary knowledge.

What kind of future does the study of liberal arts lead you to?

You will find the answer to that question for yourself as you study in the program. You will come into contact with various kinds of knowledge, think, raise questions, and seek the answers to those questions. Through these efforts, you will choose your future and carve it out for yourself. Here at ICU, we hope you will cultivate that sense of strength and conviction.

Does a liberal arts education make it difficult to obtain specialized knowledge?

No.
A liberal arts education enables you to overcome the borders between disciplines and learn "broadly and deeply" from any number of them.

Learning in the Liberal Arts program expands your knowledge.

ICU provides a system that helps students find the area they wish to study by allowing them to build an academic base on various disciplines. From there, students can gradually identify the discipline in which they are particularly interested. Students choose majors at the end of their sophomore year. This is an educational system based on the idea of “identifying areas of knowledge and taking time to study in a wide range of subjects,” a concept shared among a number of countries.

In addition, during this period, students learn ways of thinking and approaches that will become their intellectual foundation. These abilities may be applied to every kind of situation in their lives, and will equip them with the skills to think deeply and examine issues even as times and topics change.

Work together with your fellow classmates and friends and use your curiosity to explore the discipline that interests you the most! The ICU community is the place for you "to discover, engage in dialogue, and deepen your understanding."

Study the liberal arts to extend knowledge