Notre Dame’s already planned changes to the core curriculum, to start when freshmen step on campus in fall 2018, were approved, according to an email from University President Fr. John Jenkins sent out late Wednesday night.
“We are pleased to announce that earlier this week the Academic Council, which includes several student members, unanimously approved a new core curriculum for Notre Dame, reflecting a shared vision for Catholic liberal arts education in the 21st century,” Jenkins said in the email.
The changes, which will see students complete a different set of University requirements, are the most significant to the curriculum since the early 1960s, according to the email.
The major changes that will take effect are a reduction in the number of required math and science courses and a modification of the requirements relating to the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Currently, an undergraduate student is required to take two courses each in math and science, and a course each in history, social science and the fine arts or literature. Under the changes to the math and science requirements outlined in the report, students will take one class each in “quantitative reasoning” and “science and technology,” and one additional course in either. A student also will choose one course in art, literature or advanced language and culture, one course in history or social science and one integration course or a course in an undetermined “way of knowing.”
Additionally, the update will continue to require students to take two theology courses, the Moreau First Year Experience course and a University seminar in the first year. Students will also take a foundational philosophy course, but the curriculum allows a student to take either a second philosophy course or one in “Catholicism and the Disciplines,” a new category of courses that cover Catholic topics but can be in any field.
The class of 2022 will be the first to graduate under the new curriculum requirements.
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