For the first time in about 10 years, the University System of Georgia has revised its core curriculum – but students at the University won’t see much of a change, said Arnett Mace, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.

The revised core curriculum – approved by the Board of Regents at a meeting Wednesday – will give institutions the flexibility to create unique core curricula to meet their specific needs, a proposal submitted to the Regents states.

“We don’t think this will have a major impact on the University of Georgia whatsoever,” Mace said in a phone interview Wednesday.

He said the revisions to the core curriculum offered “sufficient flexibility” for the University to continue with the policies already in effect at the school.

Jere Morehead, vice president for instruction at the University, served on the Core Curriculum Evaluation Committee for the Regents, which reviewed the core curricula at USG institutions and managed the revision process.

“The committee was impressed by what [the University] already has done in this area,” Morehead wrote in an e-mail Monday. “The committee was able to accomplish its work without impacting [the University's] core.”

On the system level, the curriculum change is tied to the USG’s strategic plan, said John Millsaps, spokesman for the Regents. One of the goals of the plan is to strengthen the undergraduate experience at all schools within the system.

“We look at [the core curriculum] periodically to make sure students are given that core basis of knowledge they will need,” he said.

Under the revised core, students will also be able to easily transfer credits between USG institutions, Millsaps said.

Even if the core requirements differ between two schools – because of the greater flexibility the revised core allows – all core courses will still be transferable within the university system, the proposal states.

According to the proposal, this means schools could have to transfer credits across areas within the core – for example, credit given for a math course at one university might transfer into another institution’s social sciences area.

“The USG’s core curriculum provides its students with an ease of transfer that is almost unrivaled,” the proposal states.

The Regents also approved two proposals to end majors at the University, Millsaps said.

Both the master’s program in health promotion and behavior and the Bachelor of Arts with a major in mathematics will no longer be offered. The mathematics major is still offered as a Bachelor of Science degree.