Richmond Core Curriculum

The Richmond Core Curriculum is required of all students and combines study in several major branches of knowledge with intercultural courses across the curriculum. The program builds on a first year integrated course -- The First Year Seminar (FYS 101-112)-- and progresses to a selection of intercultural courses in the upper division. The total number of courses required is ten, arranged in three levels. The same course may be used to meet a Richmond Core requirement and a major requirement. A writing proficiency component is an important part of most Richmond Core courses.

Through Richmond’s general education program, students will gain breadth of knowledge as they progress towards a degree. Students will normally be required to meet the University degree requirements that are in effect at the time they enter the University

Level One (six courses)

A. Common Course

All students take the First Year Seminars

B. Ways of Knowing/Kinds of Knowledge

One course, usually but not necessarily at 100-level, is to be selected from each of five branches of knowledge:

Numerical – a mathematics course above MTH 100.

Experimental – a laboratory science course.

Behavioral – an approved course in the social sciences or ECN 103

Expressive – a practical course in studio art, theatre, or creative writing.

Temporal and Spatial – an approved course in the humanities or social sciences with both a historical perspective and a broad geographic perspective.

Choosing Core Courses : Level One

Level Two (three courses)

Students select one 200 or 300-level course from each of three of the following academic areas: Art, Design and Media; Business Administration and Economics; Humanities; Social Sciences; Theatre. Level three courses may be substituted for Level Two courses in the same academic area.

Choosing Core Courses : Level Two

Level Three (one course)

Students select one course in the upper division from an approved list of intercultural courses, not in the area of their major. It is very important to emphasise that the Level III course must be selected from this list (and is not just any upper-division course outside the area of the major). The chosen Level III course may NOT also be used to satisfy a major requirement.

A list of courses allowed in the Richmond Core follows the Richmond Core Planning Form.

Choosing Core Courses : Level Three

Proficiency requirements and basic skills

ENG 115 Principles of Academic Writing
ENG 215 Principles of Academic Research (includes a specific research skills component)

Information Literacy

ENG 215 includes an information literacy component. This supports the educational objectives of the University by introducing students to concepts and skills related to Information Literacy that will enable them to become confident and competent in their retrieval and application of information in a technological and global society. The goals of this program are to introduce students to the variety of resources available for research, though primarily those provided by the University library; to enable students to make optimum use of the resources by constructing effective search strategies using a variety of techniques; to encourage students to think critically about the nature of the information they are receiving and to evaluate its relevance and usefulness in terms of academic quality; and to encourage students to appreciate their role in the information community by introducing them to various styles of citation that acknowledge the provenance of the information they use.

Mathematics

Students entering Richmond are required to take the mathematics placement test (unless exempted by prior qualification). If the results indicate that a student is not prepared to take higher mathematics courses, he or she must first take MTH 100, Fundamentals of Mathematics.