UT-Austin Puts the “Core” Back in Core Curriculum

For decades, the American university has been drifting away from its most important purpose: giving students a common education in the knowledge and principles they need to become educated citizens. The core curriculum was supposed to provide that common ground. Instead, it became a collection of distribution requirements—a little History here, a little PoliSci there, a Science course somewhere else—with students free to assemble a curriculum that can have little coherence. That’s why UT-Austin’s decision to rethink its Core Curriculum deserves attention. UT is trying to bring back something that has been largely missing from higher education for a long...