Frequently Asked Questions: For Faculty and Professional Advisors.
What do all faculty/faculty advisors need to know?
Faculty advisors should be aware of (1) General Education and Common Curriculum requirements, including the major differences between the two; (2) policies during the transition years when the two options will being running in parallel; and (3) any additional requirements relevant to their school/college. During the transition to the Common Curriculum, faculty advisors should keep track of common questions/concerns that students have and feed these back to the departments and CCC+ for the purposes of continuous improvement.
Does the new curriculum require more credit hours to complete than the previous system?
No. The task force resolved to make the new Topic of Inquiry (TOI) courses require no more credit hours to complete than the old Content Area (CA) courses. Both fulfill the same broad goal of what is sometimes called a distributive curriculum, to ensure that students learn from a robust variety of perspectives and subject areas across the university. Thus, exactly as with CAs in the old model, each student is explicitly required to complete at least 21 credit hours in TOI courses and with at least six distinct subject area codes represented. Beyond these TOIs total-credit requirements, credit hour requirements for competencies (W, Q, & Second Language) remain unchanged, resulting in a new system that does not require more credit hours of education than the legacy system.
Additional Information of Note:
- By retaining the same minimum total-credit requirements of the legacy system, we remain in compliance with NECHE accreditation standards for the entire university.
- While the general University requirements for the Common Curriculum remain the same, individual schools and colleges (e.g. CLAS, CAHNR, etc) may still decide to require their students to take additional or specific credits in a particular area. For instance, under the previous system, CLAS requires students to take additional credits in CA, Q and a Second Language beyond the general University-required credits.
Are the competencies changing as well?
No. The Content Areas (CAs) have been revised into Topics of Inquiry (TOIs), but the Quantitative (Q), Writing (W), and Second Language (SL) competencies are all remaining the same.*
- All students must pass two Q courses, which may also satisfy TOI requirements. One Q course must be from Mathematics or Statistics.
- All students must take either ENGL 1007, 1010, 1011, or 2011. Students with Advanced Placement English scores of 4 or 5 are exempted from the ENGL 1007/1010/1011/2011 requirement. Additionally, all students must take two writing-intensive courses, one of which must be approved for the student’s major. These courses may also satisfy other TOI requirements. A writing-intensive course approved for the student’s major does not have any credit-hour restriction, but it is to be at the 2000+level.
- Students meet the minimum requirement if admitted to the University having passed the third-year level of a single second language in high school, or the equivalent. When the years of study have been split between high school and earlier grades, the requirement is met if students have successfully completed the third-year high school-level course. With anything less than that, students must pass the second course in the first-year sequence of college level study.
*Please note that some schools and colleges require additional credits in these competencies beyond the general University requirements. Please check with an advisor in your school or college to see if you need additional credits.
Is “double-dipping” and “triple-dipping” still allowed within the TOIs?
Yes. Given the new structure that requires one course in each of the six TOIs (breadth) plus three courses in one area (depth), this technically adds up to 24 credits. However, the new system only requires 21 credits in the TOIs, which automatically allows for a double-dip.
Under the new guidelines, any course may be designated to fulfills up to two TOIs, but not more. Courses may also fulfill one or more competencies. For example, a student could potentially count one course as TOI-2, TOI-4, and W.
Remember, however, that courses fulfilling the TOIs must still represent at least six different subjects as designated by subject code (e.g., ANTH or WGSS) and at least one course must be passed in each TOI. Exceptions to this rule are subject heading designations that group interdisciplinary studies through cross-listing, such as LLAS, AFRA, WGSS, AAAS, URBN, ENVS, EVST, HRTS, UNIV, and INTD. Other current and future interdisciplinary groups would also apply.
Why do the Topic of Inquiry courses include a Focus requirement? Isn’t that what a student’s Major is for?
While it is true that each major curriculum provides one important type of educational focus, our research on student sentiment indicated that a lack of focus in the general education system itself has been a missed opportunity at UConn. Students wanted a way to make connections across their general education courses, but instead they typically felt that course selection was an exercise in disconnected “box-checking.”
Our first task force spent a considerable amount of time reviewing educational best-practices, with research showing that “strands” or “pathways” models that make connections across core courses are a recognized high-impact practice. After considering several more-or-less restrictive implementation models, the second task force arrived at the current more flexible model. At minimum, this Focus requirement will spur a discussion among students and advisors about how to get more meaning out of the core curriculum by choosing a TOI to explore in just a bit greater depth.
More importantly, the Theme format provides an opportunity for faculty across disciplines to curate an intensely meaningful pathway through the core curriculum. This is exactly that type of engagement that students expressed a desire for, that research shows works, and that has been designed with sufficient flexibility for a flagship public university.