UT-Austin Puts the “Core” Back in Core Curriculum

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | September 2, 2026 | Thomas K. Lindsay

[karpov]

For decades, the American university has been drifting away from its most important purpose: giving students a common education in the knowledge and principles they need to become educated citizens. The core curriculum was supposed to provide that common ground. Instead, it became a collection of distribution requirements—a little History here, a little PoliSci there, a Science course somewhere else—with students free to assemble a curriculum that can have little coherence.

That’s why UT-Austin’s decision to rethink its Core Curriculum deserves attention. UT is trying to bring back something that has been largely missing from higher education for a long time: a sense that some things really are worth knowing.

The old Core had grown into hundreds of courses of widely varying quality and purpose. A student could satisfy the state’s American-history requirement without necessarily studying the American Revolution, the Constitution, the Civil War, or other events that every educated American should recognize as central to our nation’s story.

UT deserves credit for recognizing the problem. Its new framework is organized around three broad areas—Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM—but the more important change is what the university proposes to put inside those categories. Students will encounter courses on the “Great Questions of Human Life,” rather than being confined to narrow academic specialties. They will study Masterworks of Literature, whether British, American, or World, and encounter major works of poetry, prose, and drama across different periods. Western Civilization courses will address subjects such as the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, the rise of modern science and industry, and the emergence of liberal democratic nation-states.

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college

[Resolute Conservative]

Which constitution? Nobody in Austin has followed the US one in years.

[goodnesswins]

Enrollment must be down.

[takebackaustin]

Be careful what you wish for. This is the way UT’s Plan II “liberal arts honors program” was described but from the alumni I saw it was seamless team liberal indoctrination. Kinky Friedman, etc. Their founder specifically eschewed “professional education” so advanced math is not in the program. For my money hard math, science, and engineering is the best way to hone your thinking ability, not listening to same political emotionalism from multiple professors a week. JMHO

[bankwalker]

math is weight-lifting for the brain ...

[dfwgator]

[takebackaustin]

I like that!

[takebackaustin]

My daughter(s) went to UT ( my dear friend Aggie did for for MSEE and said it’s “the best university in Austin) and for enrichment #1 stayed at Jester. (Huge UT owned dorm). They assigned her Indian roommates. The roommates and their Indian friends openly discussed how they hated white people in front of her.

UT also added extra substantial fees to my two daughters’ tuition to pay for tuition for foreign students. Non voluntary, they explained it helps my kids diversity education (to hear how she is hated for no reason). It’s also kind of hard for Texas taxpayer’s kids to get in because there aren’t enough slots after all the enemies that get first crack. Daughter #1 is politically great but socially damaged, daughter #2 the reverse now, thank you UT.