What Will They Learn? A Survey of Core Requirements at Our Nation's Colleges and Universities, 2019-2020

American Council of Trustees and Alumni. 1726 M Street NW Suite 802, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 888-258-6648; Tel: 202-467-6787; Fax: 202-467-6784; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.goacta.org

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Core Curriculum; College Curriculum; Liberal Arts; Public Colleges; Private Colleges; Writing (Composition); Literature; Second Languages; United States Government (Course); United States History; Economics Education; History Instruction; College Mathematics; College Science; Natural Sciences; Educational Quality; Required Courses; General Education; Fees; Graduation Rate; Tuition

In the United States, colleges and universities have traditionally undertaken the important task of preparing citizens to participate fully and effectively in the civic, political, and economic spheres of the republican system. They have done so by joining a general education curriculum--common to all students--to an area of specialized knowledge, a major or concentration designed to prepare graduates for a specific profession. The survey evaluates every four-year public university with a stated liberal arts mission as well as hundreds of private colleges and universities selected on the basis of size, mission, and regional representation. All schools in the study are regionally accredited, nonprofit institutions. Combined, the over 1,100 institutions in the study enroll nearly eight million students, more than two-thirds of all students enrolled in four-year liberal arts schools nationwide. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni's curricular research team examined the undergraduate catalogs and other publicly available materials of over 1,100 colleges and universities to assess academic requirements. [For the 2018 report, see ED592064.]

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