History
After the Second World War, McMaster University, like many other universities around the world, saw dramatic increases in student enrollment and degrees granted in the newly developing sciences. Initiatives to revive the liberal arts in the university were proposed in the ensuing years but did not leave the drawing board.
In the mid-1970s, there was a growing sense at McMaster that although 4 year honours degrees were exceeding expectations, the 3 year bachelor degrees did not. In 1977, a university report recommended that McMaster explore the formation of an interdisciplinary program. In the spring of 1979, an ad hoc committee formed to investigate the recommendations, chaired by Dr. Dugal Campbell, reported to the university Senate. The Campbell Committee report was then endorsed by the university Senate in late June, 1979.
In the late summer of 1979, the Vice President (Academic) at the time, Leslie J. King, asked Dr. Herb Jenkins, a professor in McMaster's psychology department, to form a council to discuss, and serve as the director of a new baccalaureate programme in general studies. The Planning Council presented the "Outline of a New Baccalaureate Degree Programme in Arts and Science" in mid-March 1980. After criticisms were heard at the general faculty meeting on March 27 of that year, the Council revised the outline and presented it to the university Senate in May 1980. In September 1981, the Arts & Science Programme welcomed its first year of students.
The Arts & Science Programme awards its students with a B. Arts Sc. Students may earn the degree in 3 years, although most students complete the degree in 4 years and earn the "Honours" appellation. At the general faculty meeting of March 1980, the professors from the faculty of Health Sciences were particularly enthusiastic about the outline presented. This led to the formation of the small, inquiry and interdisciplinary-based Health Sciences undergraduate program in 1999. After Dr. Herb Jenkins retired as the first director of the Arts & Science Programme, he, along with Dr. Bob Hudspith went on to found the Engineering and Society program at the Faculty of Engineering. McMaster's Integrated Sciences Program has also been modeled after the Arts & Science Program
Read more about this topic: Mc Master Arts And Science
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
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—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)