Purpose Statement

Consistent with the mission of the University, the Bay Path Core Curriculum provides undergraduate students a coherent and substantive educational basis to “become confident and resourceful contributors to an increasingly interdependent world.” The Core provides a curriculum to foster development of the whole person, grounded in the arts and sciences with a focus on academic skills and experiences that are translatable to success in meeting the demands of the workplace. Through their active participation in this curriculum, Bay Path University students will come to understand their own potential as forces for positive change, be able to inquire critically, solve problems creatively and collaboratively, make decisions ethically, and communicate effectively.

The comprehensive Bay Path educational experience, which consists of the Core and major field(s) of study, has been crafted to ensure that each student will be prepared to live a fulfilling, ethical life, to attain a personally satisfying and productive career and to become a confident and resourceful contributor to the global community in which they reside.

General Education Core Curriculum Student Learning Outcomes

Bay Path University’s Core Curriculum consists of a wide variety of courses through which students may satisfy the Bay Path University Core requirements. The following comprise the “Intellectual and Practical Skills” and related Student Learning Outcomes which are embedded in the Bay Path University Core and throughout the rest of the entire undergraduate educational experience.

Bay Path University’s “Intellectual and Practical Skills” listed below are drawn from the American Association of Colleges & Universities, and they are represented in the BPU General Education Core, which is aligned with the Massachusetts Transfer General Education Foundational Block.  These two frameworks of essential learning outcomes complement each other and support the University’s overall mission and purpose for the Core Curriculum.

1. Inquiry and Analysis: Students will demonstrate a systematic process of exploring issues. Students will break down complex issues to create recommendations/solutions.
2. Critical Thinking: Students will apply the critical thinking process to reach a solution.
3. Written Communication: Students will demonstrate the ability to clearly express and support their ideas in written format appropriate to the issue or problem under consideration. Students will be able to mix data, text, images to support their intent, when appropriate.
4. Oral Communication: Students will demonstrate their ability to organize, prepare and present a purposeful presentation to increase knowledge or foster understanding or promote change.
5. Quantitative Literacy: Students will demonstrate the ability to solve quantitative problems from an array of context and everyday life situations.
6. Reading: Students will demonstrate the ability to extract and construct meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.
7. Collaboration/Teamwork: Students will demonstrate the ability to contribute quantitatively to the objective(s) of the team task.
8. Problem Solving: Students will demonstrate the ability to design, evaluate and implement a strategy to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal.
9. Information Literacy: Students will identify, locate, evaluate and effectively and responsibly use and share information to address the problem at hand.
10. Civic Knowledge and Engagement – Local and Global: Students will apply the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in activities that are life enriching and beneficial to the community.
11. Intercultural and Aesthetic Knowledge and Competence: Students will demonstrate skills and recognize the importance of aesthetics to interact effectively in a variety of cultural contexts and understand its implications on everyday life.
12. Ethical Reasoning and Action: Students will practice ethical decision-making skills. Students can describe and analyze positions in ethical issues in a variety of contexts.
13. Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning: Graduates will continue to engage in purposeful learning activities, undertaken on an ongoing basis to improve knowledge, skills, and competencies.
14. Integrative Learning: Students will make connections with knowledge learned from across the curriculum. Students will apply that knowledge to new situations within and beyond the campus.

Ethics & Values

A Bay Path education provides opportunities to foster ethical and values-driven approaches to personal and professional endeavors.  Students learn about and apply knowledge and skills related to ethics and values throughout their time at Bay Path, including through: 

• In some disciplines, specific courses may be dedicated to the study of ethics or learning outcomes related to ethics may be embedded throughout the curriculum
• Components embedded throughout the WELL curriculum
• Undergraduate students take an honors pledge through orientation

Bay Path University General Education Core

The core consists of a total of 40 credits from the following categories and is required for all undergraduate students regardless of program format. The General Education Core includes both specific courses as well as general categories of courses, enabling students whose educational journeys start with Bay Path University, as well as those who transfer into Bay Path University, to use appropriate courses to meet the Intellectual and Practical Skills requirements. 

Students who entered their degree program during the 2023-2024 academic year must follow the academic requirements as outlined below. Students who entered their degree program prior to the 2023-2024 academic year must follow the academic requirements as outlined in the academic catalog corresponding to their academic year of entry.

• 7 credits of Science Electives
• 6 credits English/writing courses 
• 9 credits of Humanities Electives  
• 9 credits of Behavioral and Social Science Electives
• 3 credits of quantitative reasoning 
• 1 credit financial literacy (BUS 204 Financial Wellness)
• 5 credits of WEL (WEL 100 Empowered as Learners and Leaders or WEL 220 Empowered as Learners and Leaders, and WEL 350 Strategies for Career and Personal Growth)

Certain undergraduate degree programs stipulate that these categories will be fulfilled or will be partially fulfilled by the following courses, based on foundational and career learning and application in their disciplines.   These courses include BIO 110 Biology I for Science Majors, BIO 111 Biology I for Non-Science Majors, ECO 211 Macroeconomics, ECO 212 Microeconomics, ECO 240 Economics, ENG 114 Critical Reading and Response, ENG 124 Research and Writing in the Disciplines, ENG 134 Literary Genres, FSC 105 Criminalistics, HIS 114 The United States to 1877, HUM 210 Ethics, IND 101 Introduction to Interior Design, LAW 103 Introduction to the American Legal System, MAT 120 Statistics, MAT 161 Numbers and Operations, PSY 101 Introduction to Psychology I, and PSY 205 Child Development.  Degree audits specify these required courses, where appropriate.

Financial Literacy

Because financial literacy applies to all disciplines, informs career decisions, and supports the learning of all intellectual and practical skills, a one-credit financial literacy course is a required part of the BPU Core Curriculum.  BUS204 is a practical approach to making informed and empowering decisions about financial health. Students explore values, feelings and knowledge related to money, acquire basic financial knowledge. and apply this knowledge to short and long term financial decisions.

We Empowered as Learners and Leaders

The purpose of the We Empowered as Learners and Leaders (WELL) program is to enable undergraduate students to connect with the University’s mission in challenging its graduates to become leaders and to “become confident and resourceful contributors to our increasingly interdependent world.” The WELL program prepares students to be reflective and capable people, students and professionals who can influence and advocate for others. Expanding upon and incorporating existing leadership and career development program components, the WELL program is designed to provide a foundation for the educational experience at Bay Path University.

Incorporating curricular and co-curricular elements, WELL provides a common curricular experience and connects undergraduate students in a very tangible way to the mission and vision of the University as well as to their individual personal and career explorations. Through WELL program components, undergraduate students build community through active, student-centered learning and examine their education with great intention. Completion of the WELL portfolio enables students to be more purposeful in shaping their Bay Path undergraduate experience to realize educational and life aspirations. Specific program components include:

• The WELL Curriculum. There are two required WEL courses for all undergraduate students - either WEL 100 Empowered as Learners and Leaders or WEL 220 Empowered as Learners and Leaders (both are 3-credit courses) and WEL 350 Strategies for Career and Personal Growth (a two-credit course).  In WEL 100 Empowered as Learners and Leaders or WEL 220 Empowered as Learners and Leaders, students are introduced to academics and resources, and will strengthen their skills in research, writing, public presentation, speaking, analysis, synthesis, and technology as needed to become empowered learners. Students discover their strengths and set personal, academic and professional goals using self-assessment and career planning tools. Students explore leadership traits and the knowledge and tools to lead value-driven lives. They conduct research on local and global issues that affect students, and present their findings at the end of each semester.  WEL 350 Strategies for Career and Personal Growth helps students meet their career and post graduation plans with confidence and prepares students to address relevant issues in today’s workforce.  This course’s learning activities allow students to analyze their unique strengths, skills and values in relation to their life goals and helps students develop practical career skills and strategies.  In some academic programs, WEL 400 Leadership in Practice or WEL 440 Leadership in Practice may serve as a capstone or applied career-focused learning experience.  
• E-Portfolio. Throughout the entire WELL course sequence, the e-portfolio enables each student to gather information about their academic and co-curricular experiences, reflect upon learning and goals during their education, and demonstrate growth in knowledge, skill, and experience over their undergraduate experience.
• Leadership Experiences. Components of the WELL curriculum support students’ leadership development, especially in first year WELL experiences, in which students examine their own leadership style and strengths and in the final year, the optional career-focused WELL experience, in which students apply their skills to experiential projects in the community.
• Career Development and Support. The development of career goals is embedded in WELL to provide opportunities for faculty to discuss career planning with students throughout their four years. Through WELL course assignments, internships, field placement experiences, job shadowing, career seminars, mock interviews and other career development experiences, students are helped to identify and fully leverage their unique strengths, needs, intentions, passions and potential.

WELL Program Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the WELL program, students will:

• Demonstrate academic and intellectual development during their progression through the WELL series.
• Demonstrate personal effectiveness and personal development during their progression through the WELL series.
• Demonstrate engagement in the campus community and with the University mission.
• Demonstrate community awareness and engagement.
• Demonstrate professional preparation.