The Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts

Core Curriculum for the 21st Century

Learning for What Comes Next

The enhanced core curriculum helps students discover what excites them, gain practical skills, and prepare to join the professional world with meaningful experience. By connecting big ideas with real-world challenges, students sharpen essential and durable skills — such as critical thinking, ethical reasoning, communication, and data fluency — while exploring their passions across disciplines. All of this takes place in a community that values curiosity, discovery and making a positive impact in the world.

An Education Built on Meaningful Experiences

Starting in their first year, students have the opportunity to engage in active, hands-on approaches that connect classroom learning with practical applications. Through projects, research, apprenticeships, internships and other co-curricular activities, students gain experience that translates directly into the skills employers and graduate programs demand.

Where Liberal Arts Meet Professional Pathways

Brandeis is aligning its distinguished professional schools with the liberal arts, giving students new ways to learn across disciplines. Students pair broad intellectual foundations in disciplines like history, philosophy, biology and sociology with applied knowledge in fields such as business, public policy and technology — graduating with both the depth of an outstanding liberal-arts education and the career-ready preparation of professional study.

Faculty Who Invest in Students

Mentorship is essential to the way Brandeis teaches and supports students. On day one, students have both an academic advisor and a career advisor, plus direct access to faculty across our integrated schools and a vast network of alumni in various disciplines and professions. Together, this robust mentoring program helps students explore boldly, connect studies to future goals and discover the intellectual experiences that shape their path.

Turning Skills and Experiences Into Credentials

The new curriculum is designed to build the durable skills today’s world demands, while making those achievements measurable and visible through independently assessed microcredentials. Digital badges provide proof of students’ mastery of problem-solving, leadership, teamwork or data analysis skills. Students earn digital badges in classes, internships, research projects and other co-curricular activities. Each badge is verified for rigor and credibility, giving students portable evidence of their readiness for life after graduation — whether they are applying for jobs, graduate school or other meaningful opportunities.