Committee on the Core Curriculum

The Core Curriculum is the cornerstone of a Columbia education. Central to the intellectual mission of the Core is the goal of providing all Columbia students, regardless of their major or concentration, with wide-ranging perspectives on significant ideas and achievements in literature, philosophy, history, music, art, and science.

Contemporary Civilization began in 1919 as a course on war and peace issues, and the creation of Literature Humanities followed in 1937. By 1947 Art Humanities and Music Humanities had been added, and a new course in Asian Humanities was introduced. The global core requirement, formerly major cultures, joined the Core in 1990 and Frontiers of science in 2004. Though celebrated for their content, these courses are equally important for their small class format. Taught in seminars limited to approximately twenty-two students, these courses ensure that education at Columbia begins with an emphasis on active intellectual engagement. The small size of most Core Curriculum classes provides students with the opportunity to develop intellectual relationships with faculty early on in their College career and to participate with them in a shared process of intellectual inquiry. In the Core Curriculum the pursuit of better questions is every bit as important as the pursuit of better answers.

The skills and habits honed by the Core—observation, analysis, argument, imaginative comparison, respect for ideas, nuances, and differences—provide a rigorous preparation for life as an intelligent citizen in today’s complex and changing world.