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Page Updated: April 2, 2021

  • Core curriculum lays the foundation for a liberal education, giving students the skills they need to succeed in their disciplinary courses
  • Bones of the University Core are dictated by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and feature six core objectives (critical thinking, communication, empirical and quantitative reasoning, teamwork, personal responsibility, and social responsibility)
  • Per the THECB, the core is structured around a number of “foundation component areas” (types of classes such as math or political science or social science); each FCA is associated with specific core objectives
  • Departments are responsible for creating “signature assignments” that give students an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the core objectives 
  • If the department participates in the communal assessment process, they agree to give the Director of the Core occasional access to student work for purposes of assessment (assessment of the Core, not of the course)
  • If the department opts for an individual assessment process, they must develop an assessment mechanism—or use the University's rubrics, assess their own students' works, and report those results in TracDat
  • All requests to create a Core course, submit an existing course for inclusion in the Core, or change a Core course (including changing name, course number, etc.) must go through the university's curriculum process AND be approved by the THECB
  • The THECB will only accept a single submission from the University in a calendar year (we make ours in late April)
  • The Director of the Core is here to help you at every step of this process