Four Core Competencies
No single course can provide competency in a subject or mode of thought, but the Core offers opportunities to begin to develop competencies in key areas that will be fundamental to your education here at NYUAD and throughout the rest of your lives. The Core Competencies represent a well-rounded approach to inquiry, to habits of mind, and to modes of scholarly and creative practice.
With the full range of academic disciplines as starting points, these courses give every student some experience with thinking critically and contextually about culture, social institutions, ideas, and the natural world, as well as experience in problem- solving, design, and other creative work. These courses, which may also be taken as general electives, will provide not only a broad foundation for your undergraduate studies, but also an opportunity to explore subjects you may never have encountered otherwise with faculty members from a range of disciplines.
Their guidance and insights might offer you new perspectives on your chosen field of study or open up new vistas on the vast storehouse of human knowledge, experience, and expression. Most importantly, Core Competency courses should offer ways of thinking with which you can approach the world around you and should demonstrate the relevance of a range of disciplinary thinking to life beyond the classroom.
Core Competency requirements can be satisfied from offerings in Abu Dhabi or approved courses in NYU’s global network, including some J-Term and summer courses. Although some divisional courses may cross-list as Core Competency courses, coursework that applies toward a student’s major or minor may not be used to satisfy a Core requirement.
In practical terms, this means that if you take a Core course and choose later to apply it to a major or minor, you will need to take another course from the same Core category — ideally with a different disciplinary orientation — to fill the Core requirement. Most students will only count one intensive courses (J-Term or summer) toward the Core, and in no case will credit be granted for more than two intensives. However, Core courses are always available as general electives; to date most NYUAD students have graduated with more Core courses than were actually required.