Common Curriculum in Brief
The Common Curriculum provides academic breadth with a set of intellectually rigorous and challenging courses that foster skills and attributes associated with leadership and global citizenship. The program allows students to make choices in their studies, to make connections between different disciplines and ideas, and to explore their creativity by taking courses that fall into six Topics of Inquiry (TOIs) and three Competencies.
Important Information
- A running list of courses approved for TOIs is now available on the Appendix for the Common Curriculum of the Undergraduate Catalog, or as a sortable spreadsheet on the Registrar's Catalog Changes website. Select the report for "GEOC/Common Curriculum Courses" and sort as desired.
- Common Curriculum Course Development Grants for 2025 have been awarded. Please see our awards page for the winners.
- We are currently seeking new members for all of our subcommittees. Please contact Karen McDermott if interested.
- If you're a current UConn student, please see our sister website for information on the General Education curriculum. The Common Curriculum only applies to students entering in Fall 2025, although you can opt into it if you so choose. Please discuss options with your advisor.
- The deadline for the 2025-2026 catalog is February 5, 2025. To be included, courses must be fully approved through all committees, including the University Senate, by then.
- Reminder: Any CC course that a department would like to offer in intensive session (Winter or May) must seek special approval. Contact Karen McDermott for details.
Upcoming Workshops
Please see our Workshops page for a full list of upcoming events.
NEXT UP
Spring 2025: Teaching in the New Common Curriculum Series
NEXT: Reflective Structured Dialogue in the CC Classroom (3/24/25 and 3/25/25, 2:30-3:30PM, online)
Interested in new ways of bringing a formal dialogue practice to your classroom? Join us on one day (or both) to participate in a Reflective Structured Dialogue on teaching practices and challenges, followed by a debrief with a group of supportive colleagues.
This will be a fun and helpful experience to inform your teaching practice as we transition to the new Common Curriculum.
Monday, March 24 - 2:30pm-3:30pm (Session 1)
Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 292 662 942 415
Passcode: sP9tH9PP
Dial in by phone: +1 475-282-1761, 461395844#
Tuesday, March 25 - 2:30pm-3:30pm (Session 2)
Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 262 984 540 089
Passcode: eJ2PT7Dk
Dial in by phone: +1 475-282-1761, 136210857#
Topics of Inquiry
Creativity: Design, Expression, Innovation
In any discipline, creativity is a process that turns novel ideas into reality. Courses in this topic require higher-order thought processes that imagine new possibilities. Through the application of innovative thought and activity, students will conceive and/or produce new forms of expression, ideas, mechanisms, and products.
Cultural Dimensions of Human Experiences
Human cultures are fluid and interwoven sets of values, shared beliefs, language, customs, and artistic expressions shaped by experience and history. Courses in this topic promote understanding of cultures of groups of people—large or small—through examination of their specific literary and artistic expressions, their ways of thinking and behaving, their achievements and struggles, and their evolving relationships to their past.
Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice
The dynamics of power and privilege produce inequalities at individual, structural, and cultural levels. Human identities develop through cultural values, social group membership, and lived experiences. How societies perceive and manage this cultural, social, and biological diversity can foster or suppress human identity in democratic life, thereby shaping social and individual experiences.
Environmental Literacy
As part of natural systems, humans impact the health and well-being of natural systems and of Earth systems. Conversely, natural and Earth systems impact human health and well-being. By recognizing critical environmental concerns, individuals within social, political, and legal systems develop knowledge, skills, and motivation to make informed and responsible decisions concerning human relationships with the natural and Earth systems and take actions to improve the well-being of other individuals, societies, and the global environment.
Individual Values and Social Institutions
Informed citizenship and leadership call on an appreciation of how society is organized on multiple scales, from individual values and actions to social institutions and economic systems.
Scientific and Empirical Inquiry
Knowledge production stems from an interplay of observation, data, hypotheses, and theory concerning the natural universe, social systems, and theoretical models. Through scientific inquiry in the form of problem-solving and questioning, a greater understanding of observable phenomena develops and facilitates well-reasoned conclusions and predictions.