Basic Program
What is The Basic Program?
The Basic Program is based on the University of Chicago’s famed undergraduate core curriculum. The core was intended to be the best possible training for citizens of the world, a curriculum that lays the foundation for critical thinking. The Basic Program has the readings and discussion sessions of this curriculum without the tests or papers. For 64 years, it has been the only noncredit program of its kind in the world. Participants read the original texts (in English translations) of great writers and work with an exceptional teaching staff.
Why study liberal arts at the University of Chicago?
What does it mean to be human? What is love? How can we achieve justice? Questions like these deserve more than a casual conversation in a book group. The Basic Program’s structured curriculum and skilled instructors allow discussion of these topics with great minds of our culture, across the centuries. A liberal education does not promise answers; it explores the scope of human knowledge, providing not facts, but tools of inquiry.
Who is in the Basic Program?
The Basic Program is a community of adults who seek a rigorous liberal arts education, and a staff of committed instructors who are both scholars and experienced discussion leaders. Many students who begin with the challenge of the four-year certificate curriculum deepen their experience through the program’s lecture series, weekend study retreats, and alumni courses. If you are interested in the curriculum but don’t have time for the certificate program, many components of the program are open to you.
