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Core Curriculum

Core Curriculum

Santa Clara University's Core Curriculum provides a humanistic education that leads toward an informed, ethical engagement with the world.

Core Requirements

Navigate here to Foundations

These sequences introduce students to university learning in the context of complex, multidimensional topics and a rigorous intellectual environment in and outside the classroom.

Navigate here to Explorations

Explorations courses, taken throughout the four years of study, build on the Foundations component of the Core and foster the breadth of knowledge, habits of mind and heart, and values needed for contemporary life.

Integrations

Integrations courses reemphasize engaged learning, critical thinking, civic life, communication, and intentional learning. They help students discover and explore additional connections among courses in the Core or major and are most often components embedded in other Core courses and courses required for majors.

Integrations are generally elements within existing courses for the Core or your major.

Because a liberal education in the Jesuit tradition is oriented toward particular ends, the Core Curriculum affirms a set of central learning goals. These goals are divided among three broad categories—Knowledge, Habits of Mind and Heart, and Engagement with the World.