Overview of the Core
The ideal of the core curriculum at Ashland University, consistent with that of the liberal arts, involves the development of the wise person. This requires certain competencies, which in turn require a curriculum with certain essential components. These components in turn require a variety of teaching formats to develop those essential competencies.
In general any core curriculum seeks to get students to be able “to think.” Suffice it to say, “to think” is to not merely do one kind of thing, but a variety of different things, the most important of which find representation in the core, understood as modes of inquiry. All Ashland students eventually designate a major in a specialized discipline, but the core should be thought of as the undergraduate common major of the university. All undergraduate students have to take 44 credit hours across a variety of areas to satisfy the requirements of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum.
| The Core at Ashland is organized under the following categories: |
- Mathematics / Logic
- English Composition
- Religion
- Wellness
- Communications
|
- Aesthetics
- Humanities
- Natural Sciences
- Social Sciences
- Historical Reasoning
|
|
What is unique about Ashland’s Core?
The inclusion of ethical and religious elements in the core at Ashland points to our ideal that the wise person must be a moral person. This makes our program of liberal education unique, in that at Ashland, values are not electives. The core of liberal education is of decisive importance for the moral development of students, and reflection on values is embedded in most core courses. Also, courses in this 'common major' are not to be thought of as courses “to be gotten through” or “tested out of,” nor all taken at the beginning. Rather, Ashland’s core is to be thought of as continuously informing one’s undergraduate education. The common major underwrites the specialized majors of one’s academic career.
