Duquesne University Core Curriculum

Guiding Vision

• Education that informs the mind, engages the heart, and invigorates the spirit is the guiding vision of the University Core Curriculum at Duquesne University, an urban Catholic university in the Spiritan tradition.
• This vision takes its inspiration from the University’s mission, specifically the commitment to excellence in education and concern for moral and spiritual values, especially the Spiritan values of global justice and the kinship of all peoples.
• The Duquesne general education curriculum prepares students to search for truth, with attention to how faith and reason together contribute to that search, and to exercise wise, creative and responsible leadership in the service of others and in the fashioning of a more just world.

Purpose

• In keeping with this Catholic-Spiritan vision, the purpose of the University Core Curriculum is the education of the whole person through a study of the liberal arts that emphasizes the students’ intellectual and ethical development.
• Through acquiring the modes of inquiry particular to the humanities and the social and natural sciences, students expand their self-understanding and their knowledge of the world.
• The University Core provides students with the opportunity to explore how religious faith and spiritual values enrich human life.
• By connecting learning in the classroom to community service, students are encouraged to develop as responsible, global citizens.

Educational Values

The educational values that flow from the vision and purpose are commitment to

0. Academic excellence through the pursuit of truth;
0. Education in the liberal arts and sciences that recognizes the inherent dignity of every person and the uniqueness of individual creative expression;
0. Knowledge of human culture and of the natural world that enriches the individual and enables personal and communal growth in social and environmental responsibility;
0. Spiritual and moral development and ecumenical openness that fosters inter-religious understanding;
0. Civic engagement in Service-Learning that links academic knowledge of society with real life issues and concerns;
0. Intellectual honesty and academic integrity.

General Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

The University Core Curriculum has broad common learning goals for all its students enrolled in its baccalaureate programs.

Upon completion of the University Core Curriculum students are able to

0. Demonstrate critical, creative, and constructive thinking and communication – written and verbal – informed by the humanities and the social and natural sciences;
0. Recognize the diverse ways of knowing intrinsic to the intellectual disciplines and some significant ways in which they foster self-growth, broader understanding, and self-initiated learning;
0. Demonstrate literacy and problem-solving ability in quantitative, qualitative, and scientific analysis;
0. Comprehend fundamental human questions through the study of selected texts and figures in philosophy and theology;
0. Explain how religion can inform personal, societal, and professional life through study of and reflection on theological sources and questions;
0. Perceive and analyze basic ethical and moral problems—personal, professional and societal;
0. Recognize the importance of the creative arts and of artistic expression;
0. Identify some of the unique perspectives provided by faith and reason in the pursuit of truth;
0. Develop a global perspective through investigating diversity within global, national, and local contexts;
0. Distinguish among opinions, facts, and inferences and be open to revising personal judgments after careful and critical thought;
0. Demonstrate technological capabilities appropriate to the disciplines and information literacy, which includes critical analysis and reasoning;
0. Link academic theory and community-based practice through service.

 

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