Future-proofing English Majors for the New Digital Era

Since the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was introduced at the World Economic Forum in 2016, there has been an outpouring of discussion on how to prepare the young generations for the new age of human-machine partnership. The present paper focuses on the role of higher education in equipping students—those in English and other humanities disciplines, in particular—with the necessary skills and competencies to meet the complex challenges of an era shaped by rapid technological change. The paper first identifies the in-demand skills for the future workforce and then briefly outlines the core concepts of “Humanics,” a new learning model proposed by Aoun (2017) as higher education’s answer to the new skills demand. The paper then proposes a three-tiered approach to giving students a competitive edge over machines in the new era, namely an integrative education that provides a strong liberal arts and interdisciplinary training culminating in a capstone synthesis. The paper closes with a brief summary and some remarks on the challenges that lie ahead in implementing the proposed scheme.