Common Core Courses

A new 30-credit Common Core Program has been launched in the academic year 2022-23 for students admitted in 2022-23 and thereafter. Students admitted ON OR BEFORE 2021-22 are required to continue to complete the requirements of the 36-credit Common Core Program. Please refer to the common core curriculum for details.

The new 30-credit Common Core Program incorporates a competency education framework that helps students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to perform in real-life situations. Students may refer to the competency curriculum map to select common core courses that teach the competencies they want to learn.

To ensure students admitted on or before 2021-22 can also benefit from competency education, all common core courses in Arts, Humanities, Science, Technology, Social Analysis, and Chinese Communication areas in the 30-credit Common Core Program are included in the 36-credit Program.


When taking common core courses, students should keep the following in mind:


  1. The list of common core courses may change from year to year. Only courses taken in the academic term in which they are listed can be used to fulfill the common core requirements.
  2. The common core areas of some courses may change from year to year due to changes in course content and focus. Therefore, students are advised to check the designated common core areas of courses for the specific academic term before enrolling in classes.
  3. Courses that are listed under more than one common core area can only be used to count towards one of the listed areas, but not all.
  4. The Course List summarizes all active common core courses and their common core areas, while the Delisted Course List contains courses removed from the common core curriculum.
  5. In 2022-23, some common core courses were offered with the prefix “CORE”. Changes in course codes (e.g., from PHYS 1003 to CORE 1111) will not affect their fulfillment of relevant curriculum requirements.
  6. Starting from 2023-24, the “CORE” prefix will be removed, and common core courses will be coded according to their subject area code (e.g., “ACCT” for Accounting). Students who took common core courses with the “CORE” prefix in 2022-23 can use them to fulfill the corresponding common core area requirements. However, they cannot retake the same course with the corresponding subject area code. For example, if a student took CORE 1232 Exploring and Visualizing Data in 2022-23, they can use it to fulfill the common core Science & Technology (S&T) area requirement, but they cannot take COMP 1942 Exploring and Visualizing Data again.
  7. Certain courses may fulfill school/major/minor program requirements and can also be used to fulfill the common core requirements, depending on the credit reuse rule specified by individual programs. Students should check the program catalog for details or consult their major/minor departments for advice.

Course Catalog
Class Schedule
SIS