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Our Unique Core Curriculum

Education is a conversation, and the best conversations begin with real questions. The Open Questions curriculum is built around four questions that everyone confronts.

4 students in commons listening room

Our Unique Approach

Some questions are bigger than any one class.

Open Questions Open Minds curriculum, a way of teaching—and a way of doing—that ensures you are thinking about what matters most and the impact you'll have on the world.

At Ursinus College, a strong sense of purpose underlies every aspect of the student experience. The college’s mission—to empower students to become independent, responsible individuals through a rigorous liberal arts education—finds practical and philosophical expression in both the Open Questions Curriculum and the APEX experiential learning ecosystem.

At the heart of the Ursinus experience is the Open Questions Curriculum, which uniquely organizes a student’s education around four essential questions:

  1. What should matter to me?
  2. How should we live together?
  3. How can we understand the world?
  4. What will I do?

These questions reflect Ursinus’s commitment to fostering critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and self-awareness. They encourage students not only to engage with diverse disciplines and viewpoints but also to reflect deeply on their own values, society, and purpose.

APEX extends Our core into real-world practice.

APEX—Applied, Professional, and Experiential Learning—extends this philosophical framework into real-world practice. By offering support for internships, research, creative projects, study abroad, and service learning, APEX helps students take the inquiry and learning fostered by the Open Questions Curriculum and test it in dynamic, applied settings. Whether a student is conducting scientific research, interning at a nonprofit, or launching their own creative endeavor, APEX encourages them to ask: What will I do, and how does it connect with who I am and what I value?

The intersection of these pillars—mission, curriculum, and experiential learning ecosystem—illustrates how Ursinus positions students not just to learn, but to live with purpose. The mission provides the foundation, the Open Questions Curriculum fosters inquiry and reflection, and APEX provides tangible pathways to act on those insights. Together, they form a transformative education that prepares students to thrive in their personal lives and in an ever-changing world.

Trying to get students comfortable with complexity, and with being skeptical of simple-minded answers to complicated questions, is an enormously important project to which I think every institution of higher learning should be committed.”

Andrew Delbanco,
Teagle Foundation President