Flexible Education

Increase the flexibility of the major requirements where needed to enable intellectual exploration

The model of undergraduate education CUE2 recommends retains disciplinary expertise at its center. For students to develop boundary crossing competencies, however, they should leave their disciplines and learn elsewhere. The commission recommends a minimum of 33% of all student credit hours be un-prescribed by major-specific requirements across all undergraduate majors in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of Engineering.

Progress

• The KSAS Shared Governance Council and the WSE Faculty Senate will shepherd reform in consultation with departments/programs.
• All majors in KSAS have completed self-studies and implementation responses (2021 and 2022, respectively) to ensure sufficient credit space for curricular breadth and flexibility. The results of this work have culminated in a proposed General Education model for Krieger based on the six Foundational Abilities with an intended launch for students entering in Fall 2024.
• WSE has sent 3 major creation/revision proposals to HAC and MHEC for approval that are aligned with the CUE2 flexibility requirements. Two of these are existing BS programs that were restructured (Computer Science and Environmental Engineering) and the third is a new BS in Systems Engineering. Other WSE programs are targeting the enactment of increased curricular flexibility for students entering in Fall 2024.