Bachelor of Arts: Think B.A. (Beginning of It All)

According to an informative article in the Economist, “for the first time in history, the unemployment rate for baccalaureate degree holders in now consistently higher than the national average”[1] in the U.S. Canada and the UK. In short, this is more than just a short – term economic adjustment taking place. The knowledge services job market is undergoing a fundamental shift.

What is occurring in the knowledge services sector is akin to what took place when automation replaced the need for many blue- collar workers in the manufacturing industries. Wages stagnated as jobs were reconfigured resulting in an increase in unemployment for unskilled blue- collar workers. Although the reconfiguration did eliminate many unskilled jobs, society benefited from the creation of skilled jobs, many associated with skilled trades and para-professional occupations.

AI is reconfiguring work in the knowledge services sector. At the entry level, routine management jobs where baccalaureate degree holders got their start and earned while they learned are disappearing.  Management trainees and administrative assistants are in decline in the knowledge services sector. In the tech industry AI is now capable of doing basic computer programing.

In professional services fields such as law there is no longer any need to retain junior lawyers to undertake basic research and the drafting of routine documents. AI and sophisticated Chat GP can now perform those functions.
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Moreover, research into baccalaureate degree education has found that “many students with baccalaureate degrees are functionally illiterate”[2] Too many recent graduates have relied on I Phone centric reading (the 15 -minute quick click) and Chat GPT learning modules for writing assignments   and lack the capability to undertake critical reading and writing. They haven’t acquired the capability to read in depth and analyse an entire text. 

In the opinion of experts involved with the research and writing of the Economist article, “Governments are subsidising useless degrees, encouraging kids to waste time studying”.[3] There are academic leaders in the Canadian  university community who tacitly acknowledge that there is a need to reform the Canadian B.A.[4] They are proposing a university centric double- edged approach.  At the baccalaureate degree level there are efforts are underway to align the B.A. architecture with the learning needs and operational framework of the emergent new age.

University centric baccalaureate degree level of study should be designed to provide students with personalized pathways to Masters of Arts (M.A.) degrees. This emergent new age and its attendant socio-economic environment contains what they label as wicked problems. “Wicked problems are ill defined, interwoven with other problems and do not have -tidy- or even lasting solutions”[5] Wicked problems are inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary. Climate change, inequality, environmental sustainability and transition from acute care to holistic health are examples. They are intertwined with public policy and extend beyond the application of expertise in a defined academic silo that is frequently associated with the traditional M.A. to multi-disciplinary and/or inter-disciplinary creativity. 

What is the difference between interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary degrees? Multi-disciplinary: people from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their disciplinary knowledge. Cross-disciplinary: viewing one discipline from the perspective of another. Inter-disciplinary: integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches. I[6]nterdisciplinary work typically involves the linking or combination of two or more fields of study to create a synthesized whole. Multi-disciplinary work draws on the knowledge from two or more fields of study as well, but is often used to describe work in which the boundaries of the disciplines involved are maintained. The JD/MBA combination is an example of a professional services multi-disciplinary field. There is a vibrant cohort of professionals with these dual degrees who apply business principles while respecting the self-regulatory boundaries of the legal profession.

The post-secondary college and polytechnic communities are also responding to the limitations of the B.A. as a singular career entry qualification by developing post-diploma programs. These build on the academic learning outcomes of a baccalaureate degree by integrating them into graduate level applied skills training linked to designated professions and para-professional occupations. 
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For example, the housing affordability crisis is a wicked problem. It’s creating career opportunities for professionals and para professions in all aspects of property taxation and development. A student with a university B.A. with and academic math major is eligible to enrol in the graduate one-year post diploma program in Real Property Administration (RPA) at Seneca Polytechnic. The student leverages their academic math capability to develop expertise in all aspects of property evaluation and property taxation. The RPA diploma makes then eligible to attain membership in the Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers (CNAREA).


[1][1][1] Crammed and Damned – The Economist. June 21st, 2025 at P60.

[2] Supra

[3] supra

[4] Loleen Berdahl, Jonathan Malloy and Lisa Young. For the Public Good. Edmonton. University of Alberta Press. (2024).

[5] Supra at P.25.

[6]
John G. Kelly, Post-Secondary Education Pathway (PEP) Perspective. August, 2025. Proprietary. Distribute with acknowledgement. [email protected] www.johngkelly,ca