As a public institution of higher education in the state of Texas, the University of North Texas at Dallas requires every student to complete at least 42 semester credit hours from a pool of courses that comprise its Core Curriculum. The Core Curriculum is designed to provide graduates with the fundamental competencies and knowledge traditionally recognized as basic to a university education.
The objectives of the Core Curriculum are
To meet these objectives, the Core Curriculum emphasizes
Components of the Core are dictated by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and feature six defined Core Objectives:
The THECB then categorizes core courses around traditional disciplinary lines called Foundational Component Areas (FCA) including:
Each FCA is defined and is tied to particular core objectives according to the state (see page 5 here.)
In addition to FCAs, THECB requires students complete a Component Area Option (CAO). There are two types of CAO options: CAO-A and CAO-B. CAO exists to allow faculty to have more flexibility in their courses. While FCA has required core objectives, CAO-B is not as prescribed.
Students must take 36-hours in FCAs plus 6-hours in a Component Area Option (CAO) to complete the Texas Core Curriculum. For CAO, students can either take 3-credits in Option A and 3-credits in Option B, or 6-credits in Option A. They cannot take 6-credits in Option B.
Approved core courses at UNT Dallas are organized by year approved; see this link to look them up. You may also view them in the UNTD Catalog.
To have more UNT Dallas courses approved for the Core, faculty must apply to the internal UNTD Core Curriculum Committee (CCC) using this form. If approved, CCC will submit it to the UNTD Academic Council. If AC approves, it will be sent to THECB for state-approval.
The CCC submission dates for AY 19-20 are provided below. If approved by THECB, the courses will be included in the Core in the AY 20-21 catalog for the exception of those with an asterick (*); those would be included in the Core in the AY 21-22 catalog if approved by THECB.
| For the AC meeting on | Submissions are due to CCC by | CCC Reviews by | Revisions (if needed) to CCC by |
| October 22 | October 1 | October 7 | October 14 |
| November 26 | November 5 | November 11 | November 18 |
| January 28 | December 3 | December 9 | December 16 |
| January 28 | January 7 | January 13 | January 20 |
| February 25 | February 4 | February 10 | February 17 |
| *March 24 | March 3 | March 9 | March 16 |
| *April 28 | April 7 | April 13 | April 20 |
| *May 26 | May 5 | May 11 | May 18 |
(Please note that if the course being proposed for the Core is a brand new course not currently found in the UNTD Catalog, it would need to go through a couple additional steps prior to the CCC. It would first need to go to the School Curriculum Committee, then University Curriculum Committee, and then CCC. Once CCC received it, it would follow the normal process of CCC>AC>THECB.)
Members of the UNT Dallas Core Curriculum Committee