Core Student Learning Outcomes

The Core Curriculum at Ashland University

The word “core” comes from the Latin cor (heart). As its name suggests, a core curriculum is the heart of a university education. Just as the heart is essential to the life of the body, a core is essential to a good education. This education is the kind we have had for centuries. It is called a “liberal” education, also from Latin, for freedom. A liberally educated person learns how to think clearly, read carefully, write coherently, speak persuasively and listen thoughtfully, which are all valuable skills. Yet, while a part and effect of liberal education, acquiring information and skills is not its goal. Liberal education aims to produce people who are free in the sense that they can think for themselves about the most important questions in life. A liberal education core centers on an important question for everyone: What does it mean to be a good human being? A liberally educated person continues to explore this question and others that emerge from it throughout his or her life.

Baccalaureate Degree Core Curriculum: 45 Credit Hours

English Composition I and II 6 hours
Communications 3 hours
Natural Sciences 6 hours
Humanities 6 hours
Social Sciences 6 hours
Aesthetics 6 hours
Logic or Mathematics 3 hours
Religion 3 hours
Historical Reasoning 3 hours
Critical Cultural Inquiry (CCI) 3 hours
Principle 1

As the centerpiece of liberal education, the Core exists to cultivate the mind and ennoble the heart, which is good in itself and can enable students to enrich the professions, promote the public good and thrive in the broader world.

Principle 2

The Core’s focus is to free the mind from prejudicial attachment to unreflected opinion by encouraging students to pursue free, Socratic inquiry about the most important questions for them as human beings and citizens, regardless of major or profession. In pursuing these questions, Core courses will empower students to think freely and critically about questions concerning wisdom, ethics, justice, society, culture, language, nature, science, beauty, religion and the past.

Principle 3

Generally speaking, Core courses will be participatory and focused on how facts and theories help to deepen understanding of the question under study. Students will also learn how to think clearly, read carefully, write coherently, speak persuasively and listen thoughtfully. 

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Core Classes
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Core Appeal
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Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Core Advisory Committee