In Profile's November cover story, "Wake-Up Call: The future of liberal arts in a fast-forward world," we noted that York liberal arts graduates had no problem landing jobs compared to some graduates from other faculties.

    Now, numbers released by York's Institute for Social Research further confirm that observation. Graduates who have an arts degree do better than either fine arts or science students in getting full-time employment within two years of graduation. However, Arts students did not compare as well to business students in terms of percentages with full-time jobs.

    An ISR survey done two years after graduation of York students who graduated in Fall 1995, collected employment information on students from the Faculty of Arts, Fine Arts, Pure and Applied Science and the Schulich School of Business (SSB).

    Briefly, 6% of the 1,422 students who responded in the telephone survey were self-employed, 50.6% were employed full time, 26.9% had become students again and only 2.5% said they were unemployed and looking for work. Fifty-one per cent of arts grads reported working full time, compared to science graduates with 42.6%. Schulich students reported 79.6% full-time employment.

    With the exception of SSB, where no students reported being unemployed, the average unemployment among other faculties was between 2 and 3%.

    As well, a current Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council study of what happens to liberal arts graduates once they enter the labour market also backs up York's results. The 1998 study reveals that Canadians who earn university degrees in the humanities and social sciences land well-paying jobs and experience less unemployment than those with only a community-college degree or vocational education

    In the mid-1990s, the unemployment rate for university graduates age 25 to 29 was 5.8%, well below the jobless rate of 9.3% for graduates of technical and vocational programs. The study shows that most liberal arts graduates were employed in professional or managerial jobs at pay rates higher than people with technical diplomas or even university degrees in commerce.

    And in a cost-benefit analysis, both the individual and society as a whole benefit from the investment in a liberal arts education, suggests the study. A liberal arts degree also remains a bargain compared with high-priced professional degrees.

    "These findings are good news for a university like York," says Michael Stevenson vice-president (Academic Affairs) and Provost. "We offer the highest quality liberal arts programs to more students than any other Canadian university."

Illustration: Jeff Halmos