This essay traces the origin of liberal arts and science education in European higher education. The traditional liberal arts education in Europe evolved to accommodate the critical humanistic and secular outlook through the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. The great debate over the idea of university in the 19th century saw the emergence of specialized and research-oriented universities. The trend was further enhanced by the post-war social democratic arrangements of public funding for the higher education and the mass enrollment of university programs, effectively wiping out the liberal arts and humanities education from the university curriculum. The paper also describes the recent rise in interest in liberal arts education at some quarters of European universities and provides its reasons including the institutional changes as a result of the Bologna Process. Concluding remarks consider some lessons from the European experience that Korean universities might consider in debating their future liberal arts education.