IMPACT COMMUNICATION
AND INNOVATION
AND INNOVATION
While in Brazil we question the validity and utility of the humanities, investor Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of the finance firm Blackstone, has just donated $18 million to the University of Oxford to create the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. Through this center, the university will establish a "dynamic hub dedicated to the areas of knowledge that inform our understanding and appreciation of the human experience." According to a statement released by the institution, the center will also house the new Institute for Ethics in AI, which will apply the university's capabilities to bridge the humanities with studies on the ethical implications of artificial intelligence and other computer-based technologies.
According to the website Quartz, Schwarzman's donation to Oxford is the largest the university has received since the Renaissance, but the question remains: why did he decide to invest in the humanities instead of technology and engineering, for example, which are fields currently on the rise and which, in reality, have already solidified their reputation over the last few years?
For the site, this may be because the investor "recognizes the false dichotomy in the question itself. And it seems Schwarzman is not alone in betting on the humanities, particularly when they are correlated with issues rooted in ethics, technology, and business."
"Despite the high-profile support from titans like Schwarzman, the idea that entrepreneurship education is best combined with the liberal arts to truly prepare the managers and service professionals of the future is still a radical notion in many educational circles. Many highly sought-after universities reject the idea of having a higher education focused on business, preferring pure studies in arts, humanities, and sciences without tempting the student to experience the practical skills and capabilities that are characteristic of their professional education."
This is a reality much closer to Brazilian public universities than private ones—regardless of the major, the latter tend to have a more market-oriented outlook than a research-oriented one. However, this dichotomy between academia and the market is also harmful to education and the integration of students into the job market, leaving them only with the possibility of either teaching or entering a market that already views them as outdated by the time they finally secure their degree after finishing their four years (or more) of study.
However, business-focused schools have this closer proximity to corporations and the ability to connect classical education with market-driven capabilities, which amounts to a perfect formula for the professional of the future—it is the basis of new teaching methodologies like STEAM, for example. "What is in demand is business analysis combined with critical thinking skills and a global vision. Forward-thinking liberal arts colleges, therefore, are working on new curricula in which business, entrepreneurship, and organizational studies are taught from multidisciplinary foundations—thus giving their students with business career aspirations the socially useful ability to question and critique business decisions based on multidisciplinary logic." In other words, the revolution in education that is already occurring at the most fundamental levels does not need to wait for these children to reach university age: it can start being implemented now.
In the United States, this type of connection already happens every year with initiatives like the Aspen Institute Business & Society undergraduate program, where the great challenge is precisely to mix business and the humanities in the classroom. "They range from the largest public and private schools in the country, but they also consider well-regarded colleges located in small towns and rural areas. They are accountants and PhDs in poetry, management scholars and political scientists, design thinkers and professors of Shakespeare and Tao, law scholars and deans. These educators work their magic with students young enough, with brains still flexible enough to memorize or recite poetry. They encourage long-lasting skills like valuing the written word, reflecting before solving a problem, turning business decisions into a science of reflective practice, as well as appreciating the role of the arts as an engine for economic development and creativity."
"The change happening in the market also reflects the talent that is arriving at companies and taking on administrative responsibility. The social forces that are reshaping business, as well as business schools, are creating real change and turning the world toward these researchers. Employees, workers, and managers are the new trust mechanism for this business. Think of the conversations about the #GoogleWalkout and #MeToo happening in the employee cafeteria. The scholars gathering at Boston University this week are keeping an eye on this space—but also teaching classes in these spaces."
In other words, mixing science and art with analytical thinking, management, and marketing skills encourages more human-centered and higher-quality decisions—decisions that, after all, stand the test of time. In his new book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World," David Epstein focuses precisely on how generalists will be more sought after for success than specialists in the future. As the Quartz report describes, "Epstein notes that it is not the 10,000 hours that will help you succeed in what he calls 'wicked learning environments,' it is the interdisciplinarity of the courses—the artistic pursuit of combining with the sciences; it is knowing that the 'adjacent things' are the ones that matter most."
In this sense, the conclusion is that we need to create new models of thinking based on co-creation in education. "We will definitely need today's students to amplify the wicked problems and spaces as they face their business journeys. We hope that the impulse to co-create is not only leveraging at Oxford, but far beyond," the report concludes.
