Texas has long agreed that students at all public universities should graduate with the same foundational knowledge, no matter their major.
Every college student at a public Texas university has to satisfy 42 prescribed credit hours before graduating. The required hours are meant to ensure all students get a solid background in topics like history, mathematics and writing. Right now, students can choose from thousands of courses to satisfy those mandates.
But this fall, foundational courses are in a state of upheaval as university systems work to comply with a new law that limits what classes qualify for core curriculum requirements.
Senate Bill 37, a 2025 state law reforming higher education, charged university systems with reviewing all courses that satisfy core education requirements by 2027. Colleges can only keep classes deemed foundational, civic-focused, broad and necessary for the workforce.
At an interim hearing of the Senate Higher Education Committee last week, university system leaders said they were on track to make changes. Wynn Rosser, the commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, recently said the state agency also will look at streamlining core requirements.
University chancellors have said they expect to finalize their reviews this fall, and some have already announced sweeping changes that go beyond the law’s bounds. Texas Tech University System, for instance, banned courses in gender and sexuality, even though SB37 doesn’t touch on that subject matter.
At the University of Texas, President Jim Davis has promised to restore the public’s trust by improving core curriculum and adding “balance” to degree programs. Davis appointed an 18-member faculty committee to look into core curriculum last fall, but has not yet released the results of that study.
As chancellors — who are hired by politically appointed regents — and university leaders redefine what every college student must learn, some faculty fear core curriculum reviews are a way to inject political bias and eliminate politically unpopular courses.
But experts and lawmakers say only a small set of rigorous courses should satisfy core requirements, which are intended to give undergraduate students a shared, broad foundation of learning.
History of the core
Not all states require a core curriculum. Since 1987, all Texas students have had to take courses in liberal arts, humanities, science and politics as part of lawmakers’ efforts to ensure students acquire versatile skills regardless of their major.
Now, Texas has some of the most robust core curriculum requirements in the nation, with 42 credit hours, or 14 classes, required. The core makes up about one-third of a student’s degree and covers communications, math, life and physical sciences, social sciences, creative arts, American history, government, philosophy and another subject at the discretion of each university.
Texas’s core curriculum is “particularly strong,” said Veronica Bryant of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which advocates for academic freedom and responsibility.
“The purpose of a curriculum is to provide that foundation of knowledge and skills across the liberal arts on which students base the rest of their education, and also, frankly their careers and their lives,” Bryant said. “It has to come before the specialized education that students get from their major.”
More than 3,400 courses satisfy the 14 class requirements in the state, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board found. At UT, 678 courses satisfy one of the requirements.
The vast menu of classes can weaken the shared foundation the core is trying to give students, where two students can have vastly different experiences under the same requirements, Bryant said.
The array of classes available is “educational malpractice” against a core curriculum’s purpose, which is to teach students “the basics of each field,” she said.
What the SB 37 review entails: ‘Who has power’
Wanting a narrowly tailored education for students isn’t only a conversation in higher education. The State Board of Education, which sets curriculum standards for K-12 students, approved a new required reading list in June that aims to create a common foundation for students. Teachers will start using the list in 2030.
Jennifer Ruth, a professor and member of the American Association of University Professor’s committee on academic freedom, tenure, and government, finds Texas’ core curriculum review unusual because it is so top down.
SB 37 charged politically appointed regents and the university leaders they hire to lead the curriculum reviews. The reviews run counter to what the professors union considers best practice: giving faculty control over curriculum because of their expertise, Ruth said.
Faculty councils previously led the process to select and approve core curriculum at Texas universities, though the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board maintained oversight over what courses could satisfy state requirements.
“It’s hard to see this as a good faith process because of the way in which it is very clear how who has power, who has total power, and who doesn’t,” Ruth said.
Brandon Creighton, the former conservative state senator who authored SB37, cited the law in banning sexuality and gender studies courses at the university system he now oversees, Texas Tech. He told lawmakers last week that they could consider being more prescriptive about what subject matter should not be in core curriculum, as he suggested in an early draft of the legislation.
What’s next for colleges?
Proposed changes to courses that satisfy the core are due to the Legislature by early 2027.
The University of Houston is proposing cuts to 40% of its core curriculum — including Intro to Global Climate Change, Introduction to Women’s Studies, and Introduction to LGBTQ Studies, the Houston Chronicle reported.
In 2025, Davis ended UT’s Flags program, which mandated additional UT course requirements for all students. The program mandated students to take classes focused on topics including quantitative reasoning and cultural diversity. The departments that offered some of the cultural diversity courses are now being eliminated and folded into a new department of social and cultural analysis starting this fall.
Texas faculty have warned that the review of core curriculum options could lead institutions to prioritize conservative-championed classes, while curbing enrollment in small programs like ethnic and gender studies.
That will diminish student options and remove faculty from a process that benefits from their expertise, Ruth said.
“This isn’t reform,” Ruth said. “This is a deforming of how higher education works.”
This piece was originally published by the Austin American-Statesman on August 3, 2026.