The University received a 'D' grade this semester for the amount of core courses it requires for graduation from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
ACTA's study - which graded more than 700 universities - entitled "What Will They Learn?" spanned the past two years and assessed the schools in seven areas - composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government and history, economics, mathematics and science.
"Our grading system goes from A to F and depends on the number of those core courses that the university requires," ACTA Policy Director Michael Poliakoff said. "It's not enough for it to be an option; it has to be a requirement."
Poliakoff cited the University's lack of a dedicated literary program or requirements for a broad study of economics or U.S. government and history in his explanation of the low grade. Additionally, the University was marked down for combining science and math into a single requirement.
"U.Va. only fulfilled two of the seven categories," he said.
College Dean Meredith Woo responded to the critique by comparing the University's grade to the grades of other top institutions in the nation. Johns Hopkins University, for example, received an F, and both Yale and Cornell Universities received bottom marks, as well.
"The College's requirements ensure that students have breadth, depth and flexibility in crafting a course of study that challenges their intellect while advancing their personal goals," Woo said. "We offer many courses in all seven areas of the ACTA study yet give our students appropriate flexibility in course selection. Like Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, Michigan and other top universities that received low grades in the study, U.Va. has high-caliber students."
Moreover, Kennedy Kipps, special assistant to the dean, said the College's curriculum and degree requirements are not permanent and evolve over time. "This happens under the direction of the faculty committee on educational policy and the curriculum," he said. Just last April, a total of 15 requests to alter the current requirement structure were approved.
ACTA believes its ranking system fills an important gap in public knowledge of what the nation's universities offer.
"With the exception of this project, there is no system that rates schools on the strength of what they require, about which we feel very strongly," Poliakoff said. "On the basis from what we've been reading from U.S. employers, we didn't see any system that rated schools on what they covered in general education."
ACTA was founded 15 years ago with a mission of the "three As" - academic standards, academic freedom and accountability. The 10,000 trustees worked to prevent tuition increases and are active in promoting issues in diversity and academic freedom, among other initiatives.
"Project 'What Will They Learn?' is a major contribution to ensure that people understand core curriculums and that schools work hard to offer a broad and thorough education for their students," Poliakoff said.
But Woo said the University's culture of autonomy would not correspond with a stricter core curriculum.
"Although we set out broad academic guidelines, we entrust our students with the details of completing their degree requirements," she said, "just as you would expect at a university known for student initiative, leadership and self-governance"
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