Reimagining the Core Curriculum

• The high number of credits required for the core (34-40) may be too large and may slow degree completion.

• The existing core can create barriers for transfer students, such as redundant coursework, unclear applicability of credits, and misalignment with Colorado's GT Pathways general education curriculum.

• The existing core does not prioritize integrated learning or durable, transferrable skills. 

• The core has not kept pace with some emerging societal and technological realities.

The updated core curriculum addresses each of these attributes in various ways.

The updated core curriculum is grounded by educational objectives of awareness, advocacy, and action. These reflect the key perspectives, dispositions, and behaviors students will need to participate and thrive in rapidly changing work and community environments, and are described further on page 7 of the Working Group Report.

This contrasts with the existing core, which offers a general education philosophy but does not specify objectives.

The updated core curriculum reflects a holistic, integrated approach to learning outcomes. Collectively, the proposed core is intended to inculcate students with integrated problem solving, effective and strategic communication, critical and creative thinking, data analysis and application, artificial intelligence analysis and application, and teamwork and collaboration. These learning outcomes are described further, with related durable skills, starting on page 8 of the Working Group Report.

This contrasts with the existing core, for which each required knowledge area (such as math, arts, or English composition) had its own learning objectives, but in isolation from the other curricular requirements.

Both the current and the proposed core curriculum are based on a series of competencies to be developed through a selection of required courses—mostly lower-level courses to be emphasized in a student’s first year or two on campus. The updated core requires fewer credits (30 or 31) than the existing one (34-40) and more closely aligns with Colorado's 31-credit Guaranteed Transfer Pathways core curriculum.

This chart compares the existing core curriculum requirements with the updated one. In some ways, the updated core curriculum increases student flexibility. In other ways, it increases direct alignment with important transfer standards.

Based on community feedback, the updated core curriculum structure will continue to require students to earn credits in both Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives knowledge areas—in contrast with an early version of this proposal that has been interpreted as not requiring courses in these areas. We reinforce here that these knowledge areas remain vital to the CU Denver educational experience.

In the new proposal, Cultural Diversity will no longer be a 3000-level-only requirement; instead, the Cultural Diversity requirement will include 1000- and 2000-level courses in the Arts, Humanities, Behavioral, and Social Science areas that are designated CD (for Cultural Diversity). The current 3000-level cultural diversity courses will also be moved into the knowledge areas and marked CD. The same will be applied to International Perspectives courses, and students will continue to be able to meet the International Perspectives requirement through study abroad classes and prior learning.  

The updated core curriculum’s learning outcomes reflect the need for CU Denver graduates to have problem-solving and data fluency that reflect an understanding of the ethical usage and implications of various technologies, including generative AI, machine learning, privacy.

The new core curriculum structure does not require the use of any AI tool nor the support of any AI principle—though an early, now-outdated version of this proposal had articulated AI as a potential learning outcome.

The proposal is built on the principle of cross-unit budget neutrality--and it's important to note that the overall pool of core courses available to students remains unchanged. Still, shifts in enrollment tendencies are possible, as they are in any enrollment cycle, for many reasons.

The Provost’s office has been working with the Budget Office to model potential scenarios. If measurable unit-level impacts occur that are clearly attributable to core curriculum changes, CACB can recommend subvention-level adjustments.

The primary proposal for the updated Core does not change the current science lab requirement. A “yes” vote for the new Core will not adversely impact any position a faculty member might have regarding the lab requirement.

Faculty will take a separate (but simultaneous) vote on whether the lab requirement should continue, or be eliminated. Though an earlier, now-outdated version of the proposal suggested that labs would not be required in the updated core—feedback has suggested that faculty should retain the right to vote on this aspect as an independent matter.

When this proposal was first introduced, one feature of them was thematic clusters: ways in which students could combine numerous courses under a common theme to underscore a specific thematic focus and potentially earn a certificate or badge associated with that cluster. However, this is no longer part of the core structure proposal to be voted on in April: so a “yes” vote for the new core will not adversely impact any position a faculty member might have regarding the thematic cluster concept.

That said, faculty already may arrange courses into thematic clusters to help create coherence and meaning for students, and the working group encourages faculty to do so.

Yes. The current core requires 3-4 credits of Core Mathematics. The new core proposal recommends renaming this requirement “Quantitative Reasoning” to highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the requirement and the core as a whole. Many other universities and colleges in Colorado have already made this change. This nomenclature change does not change the underlying courses eligible for this requirement: under an updated core, these courses would still need to be approved as GT Pathway MA1 courses, as is now the case.

Easing student transfer to CU Denver is a big advantage of the proposed core curriculum. The new categories (and underlying courses that qualify as core courses) align intentionally with GT Pathways, Colorado’s general education curriculum. This will better ensure that lower-division courses that students may have taken outside CU Denver will qualify for CU Denver credit, reducing student cost and accelerating their graduation path.

Upon approval of the curricular framework, the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee (CCOC) is now charged with implementing the core. There are various operational details that would not be fully determined until after the vote (though they were contemplated within the Working Group, which includes CCOC representation to support continuity). CCOC approved the core framework as an important precursor to the April faculty vote.

We intend to establish, in partnership with the Office of Institutional Research and Evaluation (OIRE) and the CCOC, a series of performance indicators that will help us not only review and evaluate internally whether we are succeeding (or will require further adaptation and reconsideration), but also document to accreditors such as the Higher Learning Commission that we are fulfilling our mission as a university. This is in contrast to the existing core, for which we have relied largely on anecdotal information about the efficacy of the curriculum.

The Higher Learning Commission, a primary accrediting body, requires universities to have a shared set of courses and/or outcomes required of every graduating student, regardless of major. CU Denver fulfills this requirement—as many universities do—by offering a core curriculum that gives students a common set of intellectual experiences and encourages them to explore complex ideas, make connections across disciplines, and develop intellectual and other habits that help them succeed in society.