​Providence College's New Core Curriculum

​Providence College’s adopted Strategic Plan--Pursuing Truth. Achieving Excellence. Transforming Lives.--places priority on fashioning a distinctive liberal arts Core Curriculum that emphasizes characteristic features of a Dominican education, including the compatibility of faith and reason, the importance of virtue, and the pedagogy of disputed questions. Providence College remains committed to the importance of a liberal education as preparation for life.

The subjects that students study as undergraduates and, just as importantly, the skills and habits of mind they acquire in the process, shape the lives they will lead after they leave college. Their course of study in the Core Curriculum, as well as in their disciplinary studies, should require them to question assumptions, engage in self-reflection, think critically and analytically, and communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. These long-standing objectives of a liberal education, however, must be refashioned in light of a changing world and new methods of teaching and learning.

The Core Curriculum, as well as study in majors and concentrations, must prepare students to connect, in an explicit way, what they learn at Providence College to life beyond the College, and help them to understand and appreciate the complexities of the world and their role in it. Hence, the College must provide opportunities for students to be engaged in their learning and to apply what they learn to what matters to them.