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Nov 21, 2024
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2024-2025 Academic Catalog
The Core Curriculum
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Click on any of the following links for information:
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What is the Core Curriculum?
“A Liberal Arts education is a celebration of learning that encompasses pretty much everything: the arts and the humanities, the social sciences and the ‘hard’ sciences, business training and other professional studies. It grounds us in a sound understanding of our own culture and history, but also makes us aware and tolerant of the histories and cultures of others. Liberal learning seeks to emphasize the growth of intellectual self-reliance and independence while encouraging cooperative endeavor. It is the competence to think, analyze and understand independently.” - Former AUC President Thomas Bartlett
The Core Curriculum is the centerpiece of the liberal arts education and the core of your learning experience at AUC. In addition to pursuing studies in a specialized field of major, every student completes an unspecialized program outside of their major that provides breadth of learning in diverse fields as well as transferable skills for lifelong learning.
The Core Curriculum courses have the goal of developing the liberal arts skills of critical thinking, critical reading, written communication, collaboration, information literacy, digital literacy, and civic engagement, and an understanding of issues that affect humanity that are relevant to all disciplines.
How Does the Core Curriculum Help Students?
The Core Curriculum helps students develop a diverse set of skills needed to thrive in today’s complex, globalized world. Over the course of four years, the Core allows students to develop personal, professional, community skills, to become well-rounded individuals equipped for lifelong learning. By the end of the program, students should be able to communicate influentially and effectively, work in diverse environments, think critically and creatively to solve complex problems, understand issues from multiple perspectives, collaborate with diverse people, ethically engage the world around them, distinguish truth from misinformation, and overall possess the personal, civic and career readiness needed for them to participate, impact, and lead in an ever-changing world.
General Policies
- The Core Curriculum is a graduation requirement.
- Core Curriculum Courses cannot be taken from the same department as a student’s first major.
- Core Curriculum courses cannot be double counted for primary major courses, concentration requirements, specialization requirements, collateral requirements, concentration electives, or general electives.
- Core Curriculum courses are only allowed to “double count” (meet credit requirements for two different areas) under three situations:
- For the secondary major when pursuing a double major.
- For credits towards a minor (consistent with the stipulations for the department or program offering the minor).
- For the Capstone in the Major requirement.
- Any student requesting to retake or repeat a Core Course must retake or repeat the same course. This includes Selected Topics courses. However, if a Core course is not planned to be offered for four semesters, an alternative course within the same Core category may be approved for retake or repeat by the Core Curriculum program if it assesses that the course learning outcomes are sufficiently equivalent.
Core Curriculum Levels: Freshman, Secondary, Capstone
I. Freshman Level: 22 credit hours
The Freshman Program aims to offer students a coherent, integrated introduction to one of the defining features of AUC: liberal arts education. In addition, the Program equips students with communication skills in English and enables them to transfer these skills to content courses so they are prepared to cope with assignments in their majors, and enhances critical thinking skills and their application in a variety of disciplines. Finally, Freshman Program courses aim to help students think with clarity and insight about themselves, their goals and the decisions they face, and to foster their civic responsibility, personal and academic integrity, and appreciation of diversity.
The Freshman Program consists of the following:
Timely Completion of Required Freshman Program Courses and Activities.
Timely completion of Freshman Program courses and activities is of vital importance, insofar as these aim at accomplishing basic learning outcomes, in an integrated and sequenced manner, as a foundation for subsequent study in the Core and in the majors.
General Policies:
- All AUC students should complete their RHET classes in their first two semesters.
- All AUC students should complete all required First-Year Experience (FYE) sessions in their first two semesters at AUC.
- All of the other Freshman Program courses need to be completed by the semester in which the student reaches 45 credit hours, except in the case of engineering students who have until the semester in which 60 credit hours is reached.
- Any student who fails to complete the requirements above will have a registration hold placed.
- In order to remove the hold, a student must sign an agreement. If the agreement is approved and the registration hold is removed, then the student must comply with the terms of the agreement. Any modification requires the explicit consent of the Core Curriculum office (or the Office of Student Life if related to FYE).
- Students in the School of Sciences and Engineering are not required to complete the Scientific Foundations requirement, as its outcomes are fulfilled within their majors.
- Students cannot proceed to their junior year before completing ALL freshman level courses.
Any student who wishes to proceed in his or her major without having completed the Freshman Program requirements according to the terms set out above, will require explicit written approval from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. Such approval will be granted only upon acceptance of a signed agreement with the student indicating precisely how and when he or she will complete all outstanding Freshman Program requirements. Students who fail to fulfill their stated plans, without sufficient, documented justification, will be placed on probation, leading to dismissal.
Specific policies applied to RHET 1010 /CORE 1010 or RHET 1020 courses taken in the freshman level of the core curriculum:
Students should complete RHET 1010 , CORE 1010 , and RHET 1020 in their first two semesters. However, students may attempt these three courses up to three times each in consecutive semesters. If the second attempt is unsuccessful, students will receive a warning, and continued study at AUC will be contingent on successful completion of the course, on a third attempt, in the following semester. A drop counts as an attempt.
- All students, except for those with transfer credits or advanced standing, take the RHET 1010 /CORE 1010 tandem classes (6 cr hrs total) in their first semester as freshmen.
- Dropping one of the two courses RHET 1010 or CORE 1010 (Freshman Writing or Freshman Seminar) will result in the other course being dropped as well, automatically.
- Students retaking the tandem courses CORE 1010 /RHET 1010 must enroll in a different theme.
- Students may pass or fail one or both of the tandem courses RHET 1010 and CORE 1010 , depending on their performance in each course. The same applies to RHET 1020 and LALT 1020 .
- RHET 1020 needs to be taken immediately after successfully completing RHET 1010 (or immediately after receiving equivalent credit for or exemption from the course) otherwise a hold will be placed on their subsequent registration until the issue is satisfactorily resolved.
- Starting Fall 2021, Students may choose to take LALT 1020 during the same semester they are taking ENGL 0210 , RHET 1010 and CORE 1010 , or, at the latest, with RHET 1020 .
- All students are required to pass LALT 1020 before or during the semester in which they are registered in RHET 1020 . Students who have completed RHET 1020 without successfully completing LALT 1020 will have a registration hold placed on their subsequent registration.
- If a student is taking LALT 1020 concurrently with RHET 1020 , then dropping LALT 1020 will result in the automatic dropping or RHET 1020 . By contrast, LALT 1020 can be dropped independently when taken concurrently with ENGL 0210 or RHET 1010 .
Freshman Program Requirements
Scientific Foundations (3 credit hours plus 1 lab credit)
Scientific Foundations courses give students exposure to the harder sciences often from STEM fields. The courses are taught in a liberal arts manner, helping students to see the importance and relevance of the topics in life and society.
Note: Students majoring in any program in the School of Sciences and Engineering meet these requirements through their program requirements rather than as part of the Core Curriculum. Actuarial science and Data Science students are required to take a lab as part of the Core Curriculum.
Scientific Foundations Courses
Cultural Foundations (3 credit hours)
Cultural Foundations courses give students introductory exposure to topics related to the human experience, often coming from a humanities or social sciences perspective. These courses help students see human realities in a multi-dimensional depth and complexity often missing in popular culture and media. Courses can cover history, economics, sociology, literature, theater or more.
Cultural Foundations Policies
- The course taken from this category must be from a different discipline/department than the course the student will select for the Secondary Level Humanities / Social Sciences requirement. This rule applies to all courses except for courses with the prefix of SEMR and CORE as these are interdisciplinary courses. Students can therefore take a course with the CORE prefix to meet the Cultural Foundations requirement and another course with the CORE prefix for the secondary level Humanities/Social Science requirement.
- Students may only take one course from this category. Any additional completed course(s) from this category will not count for credits nor show a grade on the academic transcript.
- Courses of this category may only be taken for CORE credit and may not be taken as a major or minor course.
Cultural Foundations Courses
Arabic Language (0-6 credit hours)
All newly admitted students, except those who have submitted evidence to AUC of passing the Thanawiya Amma exam or its equivalent, will take an Arabic placement exam. Students are only allowed to sit for the placement exam once in the freshman year. Based on the exam results, students may be required to take up to two Modern Standard Arabic courses.
As of Fall 2019, all degree-seeking students without Thanawiya Amma or equivalent who are eligible for the placement test will take one or two of the following courses (unless exempted by the placement exam):
For Egyptian and Arab background students:
For International Students:
All degree seeking international students, are also required to meet the university’s Arabic Language requirement by taking up to 6 credits of the following courses:
Policies:
- The timely completion of the Arabic Language requirement applies to all enrolled students, regardless of their year of admission.
- All students must sit for an Arabic language placement exam during their freshman year unless they have submitted a Thanawiyya Amma certificate or its equivalent before the date of the last placement exam for any given academic year.
- Students may sit for the Arabic Placement exam only once during their first year. Retaking of the exam is not allowed. Based on the placement exam score, students will either be exempted from required Arabic Language courses, or be required to take one or two sequenced (not concurrent) courses.
- Students who fail to take their placement exam during their first two semesters will receive registration holds upon the completion of 30 credits, and they will be automatically required to do two Arabic language courses.
- Students must take all required Arabic language courses before completing 90 credit hours. For students required to take two courses, the first of the required courses must be taken before completing 60 credit hours. Students failing to register for (or registering and dropping) their required Arabic courses in time to meet the Arabic Timely Completion Policy will be issued registration holds preventing them from registering for other courses before registering for the required Arabic courses.
- Students who have taken the placement exam before fall 2019, and have not completed their required ALNG courses following the old course numbering, will be placed in the new ALNG courses, as determined by the department of Arabic Language Instruction.
For more information on policies and procedures, please check the department of Arabic Language instruction page in the Catalog.
Please check the ALNG webpage to see the instructions and schedule of the exam.
II. Secondary Level: 12 credit hours
Category 1: Humanities and Social Sciences (3 credit hours)
These courses further deepen a student’s liberal arts experience by helping them to develop a solid foundation within one of the many disciplines within the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Every student must choose and complete one course in this category. It must be from a department other than the one offering the course taken to meet the Cultural Foundations requirement in the Freshman Level, and should be from a different discipline.
Category 2: Arab World Studies (3 credit hours)
These courses further deepen a student’s liberal arts experience by giving them deeper experience with the Arab world. Courses may dive into the Arab world through examining history, culture, religion, literature, society, architecture, stories, geopolitics or more.
Every student must choose and complete one course in this category.
Category 3: Egypt Studies (3 credit hours)
These courses further deepen a student’s liberal arts experience by giving them deeper experience with Egypt. Courses may explore Egypt through examining history, culture, religion, literature, society, architecture, stories, geopolitics or more.
Every student must choose and complete one course in this category.
Category 4: Global Studies (3 credit hours)
In Global Studies courses, students engage with complex global issues impacting societies. They develop global awareness and sensitivity to issues beyond Egypt and the Arab world, through examinations of history, culture, religion, society and development around the world, deepening their liberal arts experience and cultivating a sense of global citizenship.
Every student must choose and complete one course in this category.
III. Capstone Level: 6 credit hours
These courses help bring together all of a student’s liberal arts education into a single capstone experience. These courses examine a topic in both breadth and depth, requiring students to look into a topic in a thorough, multidisciplinary manner and to demonstrate mastery of high-level learning outcomes.
Only 3 of the 6 credit hour requirements in this category may be taken in the department of major. The other 3 must be from outside the major.
Any 3000 or 4000-level community-based learning courses not listed in this category and any study abroad courses must be approved by the Core Curriculum in order to count for Capstone credit. Students are advised to check approval of courses with the Core Curriculum Program prior to their study abroad if they wish for their course to count for Core Capstone credit.
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