Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education: Liberal Learning for the Profession

Business is the largest undergraduate major in the United States and still growing. This reality, along with the immense power of the business sector and its significance for national and global well-being, makes quality education critical not only for the students themselves but also for the public good.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's national study of undergraduate business education found that most undergraduate programs are too narrow, failing to challenge students to question assumptions, think creatively, or understand the place of business in larger institutional contexts. Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education examines these limitations and describes the efforts of a diverse set of institutions to address them by integrating the best elements of liberal arts learning with business curriculum to help students develop wise, ethically grounded professional judgment.

THE AUTHORS

ANNE COLBY is consulting professor at Stanford University School of Education.

THOMAS EHRLICH is visiting professor at Stanford University School of Education.

WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN is senior scholar at the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College.

All three were formerly senior scholars at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

JONATHAN R. DOLLE is associate partner for Research and Development at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.