Competency Requirements
Students in this general education curriculum must complete three competency requirements: the First Writing Requirement, the Second Writing Requirement, and the Foreign Language Requirement.
The College Curriculum
What would a curriculum look like if it was designed with no restraints? On what principles should a general education rely?
The College Curriculum builds on the legacy of the Jefferson model by laying a foundation for the development of an engaged democratic citizenry. Our students grapple with fundamental questions at the heart of the liberal arts and sciences, equip themselves with essential literacies for robust participation across global communities, and explore the breadth and depth of disciplinary thinking throughout the College.
Redesigned for the twenty-first century, the College Curriculum prepares our students for meaningful vocation and purposeful engagement in an ever changing and increasingly cosmopolitan world.
Area Requirements
Students in this general education curriculum fulfill Area Requirements by earning the proper number of credits from courses taken in each of five different academic subject areas. The list of subject areas and their related credit requirement is:
- Social Sciences - 6 credits from two different departments
- Humanities - 6 credits from two different categories
- Historical Studies - one 3 or more credit course
- Non-western Perspectives - one 3 or more credit course
- Natural Science and Mathematics - 12 credits from two different departments
Forums Beginning 2016
Creative Processes and Practices
Explore creativity and artistic practice through ensemble collaboration
Epidemics
Research the profound scientific and social impacts of epidemic outbreaks
Human Impact on the Environment
Trace the impact and effects of humanity on the environment
Mobility and Community
Discover links between social and economic systems that have profound effects
Visions of the Good
Tackle the considerations of determining what is “good” in our contemporary world
Forums Beginning 2017
Food, Society, and Sustainability
Investigate the role of food as a vital component of global humanity and an artifact of cultural, natural, and political systems.
Space, Knowledge, and Power
Consider the real and theoretical implications of spatial dimension on the human experience
Visions of the Good
Tackle the philosophical and practical considerations of determining what is “good” in our contemporary world.
Engagements
We have asked faculty from across the College of Arts & Sciences to design their dream courses, then teach them to first-year students as a way of asking questions regarding Aesthetics, Empiricism, Difference, and Ethics.
Small, seminar-style courses that put you face-to-face with many of UVA's premier faculty, the Engagements are different from your typical first-year classes at UVA - they ask big questions with no right answers, asking you to discuss (and even challenge) your ideas and beliefs.
Literacies
In this component, students develop their capacity to understand and engage the world even more deeply. You will equip yourselves with modern languages, learning how to communicate in speech and writing, with numbers, and across barriers.
Forums Beginning 2019
Corruption, Governance and Institutions
Examine the caustic effects of corruption on both government and economic institutions
Ideals and Injustices
Consider ideals that have shaped democracies around the world and the realities of injustices that have accompanied them.
The World Gone Wrong
Question why the world seems unfair and how we build our worlds anew.
Visions of the Good
Tackle the philosophical and practical considerations of determining what is “good” in our contemporary world.
Forums Beginning 2020
American Dreams
Investigate the imagined “perfect society” while exploring what it means to imagine a paradise on earth – and what earthly creations can hasten its arrival.
Information and Disinformation
Investigate why the proliferation of information and technologies have yet to solve the great problems facing the Earth and how we might live better – and do better – in this condition.
Democratic Statecraft: Democracy and the World
Examine the place of democracies and democratic governance in world affairs.
Forums Beginning 2018
Humans, Nature, and Evolution
Discover and investigate the story of Homo sapiens – not only what processes have formed our bodies, minds, and societies, but how and where we, as humans, might go from here.
Religion, Politics, and Conflict
Examine one of the greatest crises of our world today: religion-related violent conflict, paying particular attention to the diverse roles played by religious actors, traditions, and institutions.
Via Asia
Explore how our world has been shaped by the movement of ideas, peoples, and objects through the geophysical and biological space of Asia, both in the past and in the present.
