Core Competencies
Core Competencies are the practical skills that carry across everything students study at Brandeis — and into whatever comes next. Rather than living in a single course, they're built into coursework throughout students' time here, so they are developed alongside their major.
What's Required
Complete courses satisfying each of the five Core Competencies: Oral and Written Communication, Teamwork and Collaboration, Technologies, Global Engagement and Justice and Quantitative Reasoning.
Students can fulfill these through courses in any department. They don't need to be within a student's major, and many courses count toward more than one requirement.
The Five Competencies
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Students will build their ability to express ideas clearly — both in writing and out loud. Writing-intensive courses focus on developing and revising writing across formats and audiences. Oral communication courses build skills in presentation, debate, discussion and critique.
Fulfilling the communication requirement
Requirement Codes: [OC] and [WI]
Oral and Written Communication Chairs: Writing Intensive: Katrin Fischer, Oral Communication, TBA
Develop the skills that make collaborative work succeed, such as critical listening, conflict management and consensus building — while learning to leverage each team member's strengths and stay individually accountable. Reflects how most real-world work actually happens.
Additional information on how to fufill this requirement is forthcoming.
Requirement Code: [TWC]
Teamwork and Collaboration Chair: Thuy Lam, HSSP
Learn to identify and apply the right technological tools for discipline-specific work, and to weigh the ethical and societal tradeoffs involved in using them. Fulfilled through courses carrying the digital literacy designation.
Fulfilling the Technologies Requirement
Requirement Code: [DL]
Technologies Chair: Dylan Cashman, Computer Science
The Global Engagement and Justice requirement emphasizes the profound connections between local and global forms of understanding and social justice, encompassing global stewardship, world relationships, environmental justice, and sustainability.
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Studies in the United States
One course examining the dynamics, divisions and developments within U.S. society: exploring the experiences and perspectives of the wide range of groups and institutions that have shaped American life.
- Difference and Justice in the World
One course focused on human diversity in a global or transnational context: studying the histories, cultures, politics, economies and religions of peoples outside the United States.
- World Languages and Cultures
Reaching intermediate proficiency in a language other than English (including American Sign Language) deepens understanding of another culture and expands the ability to engage across difference. Most students fulfill this by completing an intermediate-level (30-level) language course at Brandeis, though it can also be satisfied through placement exams, AP, IB or other qualifying scores.
Fulfilling the Global Engagement and Justice Requirement
Requirement Codes: [DEIS-US], [DJW] and [WLC]
Global Engagement and Justice Committee: Ilana Szobel, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Chair; Prakash Kashwan Environmental Studies; Jeffrey Lenowitz, Politics; Irina Dubinina, GRALL
Develop the ability to collect, summarize and analyze numerical data, work with mathematical models and think critically about whether conclusions drawn from data actually hold up. Quantitative reasoning courses are offered across many disciplines.
Fulfilling the Quantitative Reasoning requirement
Requirement Code: [QR]
Quantitative Reasoning Chair: Kene Piasta, Biology
Common Questions
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Yes. A single course can satisfy more than one Core Competency as long as it carries each of the relevant designations — this applies across all competencies. Many courses also count toward a student's major.
See the University Bulletin for double-counting restrictions.
No. Students can satisfy any Core Competency through a course in any department, as long as it carries the appropriate designation.
Explore the Brandeis Core