College of Arts and Sciences faculty voted to approve a new undergraduate curriculum earlier this month.
The new program, set to take effect for the Class of 2031, comes after nearly four years of development. The revised curriculum includes three parts: a new Foundations program, a revised distribution of general education requirements, and revamped elective options.
“This new framework gives us a way to elevate our community of inquiry,” College Dean Peter Struck wrote in a Wednesday announcement. “Right from the start, we’re putting each student’s individual curiosity in the driver’s seat.”
The Committee on Undergraduate Education commissioned a revision of the College’s general education requirements in 2024, seeking input from faculty across a variety of disciplines.
Proposals were shared and extensively reviewed over the past two years. The final draft was presented to faculty in March and passed with 70% approval in “mid-April.”
The Foundations program was piloted by 120 first-year students in the 2025-26 academic year. The program includes “Kite and Key” courses, a writing seminar, and a first-year seminar that allows students to fulfill six general education requirements.
Last year, students expressed initial mixed reactions to the pilot program in conversations with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The revised program also aims to “streamline and simplify” general education requirements for College undergraduates. Students will now take at least 12 courses in one division of their choosing, five in a second, and three in the third.
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“Previously, our students were restricted to a certain number of courses tagged as fulfilling these requirements, but now, every course counts,” Struck wrote in the April 22 announcement.
Under the current system, students are required to take specifically attributed sources courses belonging to the "Foundational Approaches” and “Sectors of Knowledge” categories.
“Whatever a student takes in the humanities and arts will count toward the humanities and arts distribution; whatever they take in the social sciences and natural sciences will count toward those,” Struck continued. “This is our way of making sure that curiosity leads the way.”
The new curriculum also includes a “revamped” language requirement and requires students to take a course in a new category called “perspectives & difference.” Students will have a broader scope of elective options, including classes offered by other schools.
According to the announcement, CUE will be evaluated one, three, and five years after being formally implemented in fall 2027.
“Anything this complex is likely to have unexpected aspects arise as implementation unfolds,” the announcement read.
Struck previously told the DP that the general education curriculum was “complicated” — and that his goal was for students to have more freedom of exploration.
“What the world needed 20 years ago is a little different than what the world needs right now,” Struck said at the time. “We want to make sure that the curriculum and whatever requirements we adopt are suited to the moment that we have now.”
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Staff reporter Cathy Sui covers federal policy and can be reached at sui@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies finance and statistics.
