Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College adheres to the purposes for which the Charter of 1650 was granted: "The advancement of all good literature, arts, and sciences; the advancement and education of youth in all manner of good literature, arts, and sciences; and all other necessary provisions that may conduce to the education of the … youth of this country." In brief: Harvard strives to create knowledge, to open the minds of students to that knowledge, and to enable students to take best advantage of their educational opportunities.

To these ends, the College encourages students to respect ideas and their free expression, and to rejoice in discovery and in critical thought; to pursue excellence in a spirit of productive cooperation; and to assume responsibility for the consequences of personal actions. Harvard seeks to identify and to remove restraints on students’ full participation, so that individuals may explore their capabilities and interests and may develop their full intellectual and human potential. Education at Harvard should liberate students to explore, to create, to challenge, and to lead. The support the College provides to students is a foundation upon which self-reliance and habits of lifelong learning are built: Harvard expects that the scholarship and collegiality it fosters in its students will lead them in their later lives to advance knowledge, to promote understanding, and to serve society.

Learning at Harvard

Harvard College offers academic opportunities to its students that are virtually unsurpassed at American universities. Courses taught by world-class scholars are available on topics that span the globe, cover the latest scientific discoveries, delve deeply into the realms of art and culture and into the past. Harvard College students pursue knowledge both broadly and in depth, intellectually tasting a range of important topics and approaches to human knowledge while they also undertake advanced work within a special area of concentration.

The Faculty's departmental structure supports programs that guide concentrators from their first introduction to a field to greater levels of sophistication, while a number of other academic programs support Harvard students’ broader educational needs and specialized academic opportunities. Students negotiate the array of academic offerings with the help of an extensive advising system that is offered through the concentrations and in the residences, and that addresses student concerns from the most routine administrative questions to questions about shaping academic programs that are right for an individual student's needs. Many non-curricular resources are available that help translate our students' goals into reality.

The recently completed Harvard College Curricular Review has resulted in innovations and advances in a number of academic areas: the Program in General Education replaces the thirty-year-old Core Curriculum with new courses and innovative pedagogies; expanded opportunities now exist for students to study abroad, to conduct research with a faculty member, and to take small seminars in the first year; changes to the language requirement allow more flexibility in the first year; secondary fields offer the opportunity for guided coursework in a field outside the concentration. Additional information on innovations, and more, can be found in the various departments and programs linked on this website.

ref : http://www.college.harvard.edu