Goals of a Liberal Arts Education Liberal Education is an inquiry into what it means to be human - a quest to understand the rational, spiritual, and aesthetic dimensions of human life. Because St. Thomas University is devoted to open-minded inquiry, it encourages a variety of disciplinary approaches to this quest.
Liberal education is more important than ever.
In a culture where image and icon often short-circuit reason, liberal education seeks to free people from thoughtless adherence to the authoritative opinions of their time and place. In an age where information is prepared for massive and quick consumption, liberal arts seeks to strengthen the capacity to raise fundamental questions. In an era characterized by enormous pressures to conform, liberal education seeks to inspire the imagination and engage the human spirit. At St. Thomas University, the goals of a liberal education are pursued within a humanistic and Catholic tradition. It encourages, through independent reasoning and fair-minded inquiry, the recognition of unstated assumptions, the thoughtful reconsideration of received ideas, and challenging of simplistic generalizations.