Recently at the University of Southern Maine, members of the Career and Employment Hub’s Employer Advisory Board met with the dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences to discuss what the college’s liberal arts graduates could learn from and bring to prospective employers.

The dean, during a conversation about emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, explicitly questioned the ongoing value of undergraduate humanities skills and qualities for local business leaders. The board emphatically replied with a “yes” and then elaborated on the crucial role of writing and critical thinking in facilitating employees’ ability to adjust and develop in work environments where rapid change remains a constant factor.

In higher education, we strive to encourage students to engage in a critical examination of their values and beliefs. This critical examination should inform their words and actions. An important aspect of higher education is to promote critical thinking by encouraging individuals to question and challenge the material they encounter. In academic writing and classroom inquiries, students are expected to justify their assertions.

Critical thinking involves analyzing information, reflecting on it, considering relevance, and validity, and making judgments. Such thinking requires skills like observation, evaluation and the ability to converse with people with opposing views, experiences and beliefs. This approach cultivates personal development within and outside academia, leading to an enhanced understanding of the core message.

Regrettably, in settings outside the university, various individuals make statements unsupported by concrete evidence. A prevalent tendency is the prioritization of finding individuals who share one’s own beliefs. There is no need to justify what is being asserted. The sole requisite is that the narrative accurately reflects the audience’s beliefs.

Hence, this is the ethical dilemma that confronts students and faculty in higher education, as we are holding ourselves to a higher standard. Our assertions must be supported by evidence that meets the rigorous standards of our respective disciplines. Yet there is no such requirement outside of the realms of higher education, except for certain professions such as medicine, law and journalism.

This results in numerous members of the community asserting that higher education is only interested in changing the thinking of its students. Indeed, those who teach at universities have been accused of indoctrinating students and attempting to change students’ thinking and beliefs.

This assertion is wrong. Higher education aims to foster critical thinking by prompting individuals to question, challenge, seek different points of view and justify their assertions. The validity of a statement is contingent upon both authoritative support and empirical evidence.

In education, students must be permitted to question and challenge what they are being presented in their classrooms and what they read in their texts and other materials. It is through this process that they can come to answers that are based on facts and not just on one’s opinions, and in this way, we prepare students for both work and life.