Texas Tech University

Core Curriculum Objectives

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has developed a core curriculum required of all undergraduate students enrolled at public institutions of higher learning in the state of Texas. The purpose of the core curriculum is as follows:

Through the core curriculum, students will gain a foundation of knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world; develop principles of personal and social responsibility for living in a diverse world; and advance intellectual and practical skills that are essential for all learning.

The THECB has developed a set of six core objectives associated with promoting the purpose of the core curriculum. They are listed below and are immediately followed by the THECB's abbreviation and description of each objective:

  1. Critical Thinking Skills (CT): To include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information.
  2. Communication Skills (COM): To include effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication.
  3. Empirical and Quantitative Skills (EQS): To include the manipulation and analysis of numerical data or observable facts resulting in informed conclusions.
  4. Teamwork (TW): To include the ability to consider different points of view and to work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal.
  5. Social Responsibility (SR): To include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national and global communities.
  6. Personal Responsibility (PR): To include the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making.

The THECB requires that these core objectives be integrated into core curriculum courses offered at Texas Tech University. No single course is required to address all six core objectives; the core objectives any core curriculum course correlate with that course's Foundational Component Area.

Curriculum