The Core Curriculum
The heart of Ateneo education is its core curriculum.
As a Jesuit educational institution, the goal of the Ateneo de Manila is the integral formation of persons of discernment and action. With Christ as the model and inspiration of what it means to be fully human, the aim of the University is to form leaders in service of the global and local community, especially the poor and marginalized -- professionals of conscience, competence, compassion, and commitment.
Background
The Ateneo de Manila University’s core curriculum has been formally in place since the 1950s. After several modifications over the succeeding decades, and following a thorough review process, the Loyola Schools and the Board of Trustees approved a new core curriculum in 2016 to respond to contemporary challenges in the world and Philippine society. It was implemented beginning School Year 2018-2019.
The comprehensive educational reform in the country – through the K-12 basic education system and the revision of the CHED General Education (GE) curriculum—was an additional impetus for undertaking this major change. The challenge was to revise the core, in a manner that remained true to our Ateneo identity as a Filipino, Catholic, and Jesuit university, while incorporating the new General Education requirements of the CHED.
Design
The world-affirming nature of Ignatian spirituality has translated over the years into the primacy of the liberal arts in Jesuit education that is found in the core curriculum. It is the hallmark of Ateneo education. A key feature of our core curriculum is its inner logic in the sequencing of the courses. Our students are not simply given a list of required courses for them to take whenever they wish to do so. The core curriculum strives for both academic competence and value formation through a deliberate progression of learning.
Thus the core curriculum courses are organized under four stages:
Stage 1: Foundations: Exploring and Equipping the Self
Stage 2: Rootedness: Investigating and Knowing the World
Stage 3: Deepening: Defining the Self in the World, and
Stage 4: Leadership: Engaging and Transforming the World
Our students start from foundational courses that are meant to sharpen their language and communication skills and equip them with basic scientific and mathematical tools. Courses which explore faith and spirituality, and facilitate self-understanding, prepare students for investigating and knowing the world, and defining the self in the world – bringing them to a readiness to discern life-options and make life-choices. Our hope is that they will become leaders who will engage the world and commit themselves to using their competences to work for social transformation, rooted in a mature Christian faith.
In each of these stages, there are courses from the four traditional disciplinal clusters – Languages and Literature, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Social Sciences and History, Philosophy and Theology – as well as interdisciplinary electives. Organized by disciplinal cluster, the core curriculum courses are as follows:
Desired Outcomes
Upon completion of the core curriculum, the student should be able to:
- Demonstrate effective communication skills (listening and speaking, reading and writing) in English and Filipino
- Evaluate information and issues in various spheres of life using mathematical reasoning and statistical tools to process and manage data
- Propose ways to address pressing social and ecological problems using appropriate critical approaches and scientific methodologies
- Develop a creative and moral imagination that is responsive to contemporary global realities and challenges, but also deeply rooted in local histories, conditions, norms, and institutions
- Internalize the significance and value of her/his own unique existence and purpose in life in light of Christian faith
- Discern life choices with a keen awareness of ethical dilemmas and considerations
- Exemplify a commitment to enhancing human life and dignity, especially of those who are excluded and in greatest need
- Practice a vision of leadership and committed citizenship rooted in Christian humanism
