University Core Curriculum Statement of Purpose
The following statement of purpose was adopted by University Council in March 1992 as a guide for students, advisors and faculty with respect to the broad purposes of liberal education at Virginia Tech.
As we move into the 21st Century, both continuity and change are required in higher education. On the one hand, we must continue to foster vital links with our common cultural heritage and to inculcate crucial intellectual skills. On the other hand, the contemporary world presents a number of critical issues with which every society must grapple. Educated citizens in the years ahead must be able to react creatively to cultural, racial, and gender-based diversity, and to cope effectively with problems and potentialities stemming from such developments as technological advances and environmental crises. As the rate of change accelerates, our graduates need a curriculum of liberal education that gives them both a sense of tradition in the hard-won values of the past and a feeling of competence in dealing with newly-arising challenges.
To address these aims, any successful educational program must combine breadth and depth — an exposure to a variety of approaches and subject matters and a further concentration in one area of study. While the major may be expected to provide in-depth study in one discipline, the core curriculum is designed to introduce the student to a range of traditions, modes of thinking and inquiry, and issues of central human importance now and for the future.
The core requirements are designed as an integrated program of studies which enable the student to:
- Acquire a broadly based foundation of knowledge outside the area of specialization;
- Gain knowledge of and competence in using the analytic and creative problem-solving processes that form the central bases of intellectual inquiry and cultural achievement;
- Develop a global perspective on the diversity and dilemmas of human experience and knowledge;
- Understand how diverse intellectual skills and forms of knowledge can be brought together to make informed judgments about complex issues;
- Acquire skill in the communication of ideas and knowledge;
- Develop the capacities of discernment, appreciation, and criticism as they pertain to cultures, values, information, and ideas;
- Develop and maintain the habit of learning and responding to new ideas throughout life.