Revised Core Curriculum

Rooted in Fordham’s Catholic, Jesuit mission, the revised core curriculum offers an integrated, more focused learning experience by concentrating on clear, unifying learning goals rather than a large checklist of course requirements. It also encourages community through a first-year cohort experience that introduces students to the distinctive character of Jesuit education, promotes inquiry and self-reflection, emphasizes effective communication, and initiates engagement with New York City.

The new core is built around the Catholic intellectual tradition of faith and reason, and explicitly embraces the Jesuit commitment to promoting justice and ethics so that graduates are equipped to confront rapidly evolving global challenges. This flexible, streamlined structure supports the success of all student populations, including STEM and transfer students, while enhancing interdisciplinary connections and inquiry.

Ultimately, this redesign ensures Fordham’s continued competitiveness by aligning with national trends while forming graduates into transformative leaders of conscience.

Learn more about the key components of Fordham’s revised core curriculum:

The First Year of Study

The First Year of Study provides intellectual coherence to a student’s first year at Fordham by introducing them to the values of Jesuit education. The first year is structured to help students articulate the purposes of their own learning, establishing meaningful bonds with faculty and the wider community. This initial year of study includes five essential components:

  1. First-year cohort sequence: This two-semester sequence includes the First Year Core Seminar, which will explore themes significant to contemporary Jesuit, Catholic, and U.S. education, and the Writing and Rhetoric course. These courses will be linked, meaning that the same group of students will take the FYCS course in one semester and the Writing and Rhetoric course in the other. 
  2. A New York City Experience 
  3. A course that fulfills the Theological Inquiry requirement
  4. A course that fulfills the Philosophical Inquiry
  5. Other Core Inquiry courses

Core Inquiry Courses

The Fordham Core requires a total of nine Core Inquiry courses, one in each of the following categories. Grounded in the Ignatian spiritual tradition of discernment, the curriculum is fundamentally designed to help students practice the “art of choosing well.”

  • Philosophical Inquiry
  • Theological Inquiry
  • Literary Inquiry
  • Language and Culture Inquiry
  • Artistic and Media Inquiry
  • Historical Inquiry
  • Quantitative Inquiry
  • Scientific Inquiry
  • Social Science Inquiry

Senior Core Capstone Seminar

A bookend to the First Year Core Seminar, this transdisciplinary, integrative seminar will be defined by a topic that challenges students to integrate the different components of their intellectual journeys at Fordham.

Students will have the freedom to choose a seminar that is most relevant to their interests, but will also be expected to demonstrate their ability to participate in and contribute to intellectual conversations about the most pressing issues of our day by integrating their learning across disciplines and fields of study.

Attribute-Based Requirements

Eloquentia Perfecta

Already a key component of a Fordham education, the pursuit of eloquentia perfecta, or “right reason expressed effectively, responsibly, and gracefully,” will remain fundamental to the Fordham core. Every student will take three courses indicated by the Eloquentia Perfecta (EP) attribute.

Justice and Ethics Attributes

The relationship between justice and Jesuit education is a longstanding one, and deeply grounded in Catholic social teaching. Students will take at least three courses that bear the following three attributes to help develop the capacity to reflect on and deliberate about questions of what is just and ethical.

  • Theories of Justice and Ethics
  • Global Justice and Ethics
  • U.S. Justice and Ethics

Summary of Requirements

Core Requirement Number of Courses Year Taken

Fordham Core Seminar

1

1

Writing and Rhetoric Seminar 

1

1

New York City Experience (NYCE)

0

1

Philosophical Inquiry

1

1

Theological Inquiry

1

1

Artistic and Media Inquiry

1

1-3

Historical Inquiry

1

1-3

Language and Culture Inquiry 

1

1-3

Literary Inquiry

1 

1-3

Quantitative Inquiry

1

1-3

Scientific Inquiry

1

1-3

Social Science Inquiry

1

1-3

Senior Core Capstone Seminar (EP3)

1

4

Total number of courses

  

12

See a comparison of Fordham’s current core and revised core.

WATCH: Fordham faculty who served on the core revision committees discuss the revised core curriculum requirements and their alignment with Fordham’s Jesuit, Catholic mission.