College Core Curriculum
The College Core Curriculum is based on an interrelated set of principles that emphasize:
- Intellectual and practical skills
- Transferable tools for integrative learning
- Disciplinary perspectives
The curriculum recognizes writing, oral communication and information literacy as central tools for learning and disseminating new knowledge.
It's intended to help students understand the links between academic disciplines and their varied approaches to analyzing a range of phenomena in human cultures and the physical and natural world.
The underlying goal: to prepare students to apply the skills, knowledge and sense of responsibility they have gained to new settings and complex problems. Students will deepen their engagement in our increasingly interconnected world.
Although each student will satisfy the requirements in a different way, all students must devise a program in accordance with the College Core Curriculum and the University Writing Requirement.
Why the College Core Curriculum Matters
As one of the nation's top liberal arts institutions, Bucknell University offers an education that prepares students for the growing complexity and diversity they'll encounter in a rapidly changing world.
The College Core Curriculum, which challenges students to pursue courses outside their major, introduces students to a broad range of knowledge while providing deeper disciplinary knowledge in their chosen field of study.
Students will engage with a diverse selection of courses that teach them multiple disciplinary skills, meaning they'll be better prepared for any profession or intellectual task ahead. They'll also leave their undergraduate career as more thoughtful, compassionate and engaged citizens of the world.
Components of the College Core Curriculum
There are four components to the College Core Curriculum — each with its own set of requirements.
Intellectual Skills
Practical, real-world knowledge and a range of intellectual abilities across disciplines are essential components of any liberal arts education.
These courses help students develop important academic capacities for use during their undergraduate career and in the rapidly changing world they'll enter after college.
Explore Intellectual Skills requirements
Tools for Critical Engagement
Courses in this category provide students with an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge to problems and issues that challenge us today or have done so throughout history.
Discover the Tools for Critical Engagement
Disciplinary Perspectives
Disciplinary Perspectives courses expose students to a wide range of modes of intellectual inquiry. To ensure that students sample broadly from the curricular offerings of the College of Arts & Sciences, they are required to take two courses from each of the college's three divisions.
Learn more about Disciplinary Perspectives
Disciplinary Depths
Students learn to think deeply about a set of linked topics and the methodology of academic investigation in a specific field or a set of subfields.
Within these categories, they extend and develop their own ideas with more sophisticated and informed analysis, and they develop the skills to apply their learning beyond their coursework.
Read about Disciplinary Depths requirements
CCC Credit for Transfer Courses
There are many courses that can transfer to Bucknell as a College Core Curiculum designation. Some will need to go through an approval process, but some of them will already have been approved.
Contact Details
Sarah MacKenzie-Dawson
Associate Professor of Education
Location
206 Academic East
Contact Details
Bethany Collier
Academic Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences