Although he didn't have a liberal arts education, David Madigan, executive vice-president for arts and sciences at Columbia University in the City of New York, is still a "huge believer" in this form of education.

The Irish-born US statistician has three children, all of whom are students at Columbia College, one of the finest undergraduate institutions in the United States providing students with wide-ranging perspectives on subjects including literature, history, music, art and science.

"It's been fabulous just to watch their intellectual development," Madigan said, adding that having a liberal education is like having great book clubs, where students work in small groups, read the same thing at the same time and talk about their reading constantly.