Natural critical thinkers

The core curriculum sits at the heart of the University of Notre Dame Australia. It serves as the basis for how we approach education, it serves as the foundation for what we hope to achieve as a university, and finally, it is the core of the educational experience which our university provides to its students.

When the University of Notre Dame Australia began to offer undergraduate degrees in 1994 in Fremantle, it was determined by the founding body of the university that each and every student who studied with us would undertake a ‘core curriculum’ program. From then until now, spread across all our campuses in the West and the East, it provides a foundation for and fulfills the educational purposes that this university claims to be of fundamental importance for our students, in their pursuit of truth, the common good, beauty, and a life of integrity.

The core curriculum, in the most general sense, has two primary aims. First, it pursues the goals set out in the ‘Objects of the university’, by providing an insight into the pursuit of university education within a context of Catholic faith and values. That is the core curriculum offers to all students (whatever their religious background) a university education that informs students of the intellectual underpinnings of Catholic faith and values through engagement with philosophy and theology.

The second aim follows from the first: to continue the great tradition of Catholic university education as a liberal arts based education. The university system as we know it today was first founded in the high middle ages in Catholic Europe; with the universities of Bologna, Paris, and Oxford, in which the primary goal was a liberal arts education. This university aims to continue this tradition by offering the core curriculum to our students. At the University of Notre Dame Australia, our core curriculum is inspired by the thinking of John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University. That is, the core is motivated by Newman’s understanding that a University forms persons to have moral and intellectual virtues that will last a lifetime. This is why in the core we work with our students to understand what it means to live in a community where the goal is for every human to flourish, by learning what it means to lead good lives, and to reflect on what gives life its meaning.

The goals of the core curriculum:

1. To communicate the Catholic view of the integration of faith and reason;
2. To provide an introduction to ethics as an academic discipline in preparation for life and work;
3. To introduce the concept of liberal arts education and its capacity to enrich education within both professional and humanities degree courses;
4. To enable a coming together of students of different backgrounds and interests; and, most importantly
5. To create habits of philosophical and theological reflection that will last for life and have a positive effect upon autonomous and rational decision-making.

For Undergraduates

The Core Curriculum program consists in two courses of study. The first course is CORE1000: Foundations of Wisdom, and involves a consideration of truth, goodness, beauty, and integrity within the context of faith and reason: philosophy and theology. The second core curriculum course is an elective. Students may choose between a range of courses:

1. Core electives in philosophy and/or theology
2. Professional embedded electives that combine philosophy, theology, and studies in the discipline or profession
3. Community Service and Charity
4. International experiences, including pilgrimage

For Postgraduates

The core curriculum program consists in one course of study – a core curriculum elective. The postgraduate core curriculum elective can be any postgraduate philosophy or theology course offered by the school of philosophy and theology, including pilgrimage or international experiences. Please note that program requirements will sometimes make recommendations to students, particularly professional degree students, for core curriculum electives related to professional accreditation requirements. In the Doctor of Medicine program, the core is embedded as a study of Bioethics.