Learning Goals

Read learning goals via the individual departmental academic program descriptions in the College Catalog.

  • General Departmental Goals can be found on the Overview tab for each department or program

  • Senior Project Goals can be found in the Major tab for each department

Haverford's own Institutional Learning Goals (approved by the Faculty in 2010) include:

Mastery and Critique

Haverford College's curriculum is designed not only to help students acquire a particular body of knowledge but to develop the capacity to learn, to understand, to make sound and thoughtful judgments, and to balance creativity and analysis.

Ownership, Contribution, and Accountability

In all disciplines, students are expected to contribute original ideas for which they are accountable. They learn to present and defend their ideas both orally and in writing.

Translation and Interpretation

Students engage in acts of translation, interpretation, and cultural inquiry in every area of their studies. These intellectual habits encourage students to formulate questions, explore areas of difference, and understand their own positions vis-Ă -vis various forms of history, politics and knowledge.

Breadth and Depth

In addition to mastering a discipline, all students are required to acquaint themselves with the breadth of intellectual approaches exemplified in the classic divisions of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities; they must have experience of a second language and acquire quantitative skills.

Communication and Representation

All academic majors require students to communicate and represent ideas in modes that are appropriate to the discipline.

Non doctior, sed meliore doctrina imbutus

Our Quaker heritage is expressed in the Haverford motto: "Not more learned, but imbued with better learning." We offer our students many opportunities to engage fundamental issues of inequality and social justice. The college encourages students to put learning into action for greater ethical purposes. Our Quaker principles turn classrooms into communities where faculty and students learn from each other, and where all voices are heard. In such contexts, students and faculty alike become better thinkers, listeners and speakers, making them partners in the creation of knowledge.