An institution's mission should reflect both its unique character and the role it can play in the world. In fulfilling these goals, the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering at Tufts University embraces the mission of offering to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students a rigorous education that provides the knowledge and skills for them to grow as intellectually curious and critically involved members of society with a lifelong commitment to learning.
We expect all of our graduates to read critically, to have a mastery of fundamental quantitative concepts, and to apply analytical reasoning as well as creative insight into all issues: social, scientific, literary, technological, historical, and artistic. Moreover, all Tufts graduates are expected to be accomplished in their use of the English language. We further expect liberal arts students, and encourage engineering students, to become proficient in a language other than English.
Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is committed both to pursuing disciplinary-based education and scholarship and to exploring the critical, developing areas at the interfaces among and within disciplines. Our goal is to generate, disseminate, and advance knowledge within the ever-changing international, multicultural, and technological context of today's world. Further, we are committed to better understand and better influence value-based decisions--personal, professional, and political.
The close relationship between the College of Liberal Arts the School of Engineering creates a special opportunity for joint educational and research programs that can educate engineering students on the importance of the liberal arts, and liberal arts students on the importance of technology. Our commitment to collaborative teaching and research--within Arts, Sciences, and Engineering and between Arts, Sciences, and Engineering and Tufts professional schools--gives to Tufts University its unusual academic richness. Our students have access to innovative education and research in such interdisciplinary areas as the environment, international relations, and health issues.
As a residential institution, Arts, Sciences, and Engineering strives to create a climate within and beyond the classroom where faculty and staff can share with students the excitement of intellectual discovery and freely exchange ideas. We are committed to enhancing this climate through small classes, individual and group student projects with faculty mentors, and intellectual and cultural programs in student residences. We encourage students also to develop their potential through public service, leadership of organizations, study abroad, creative endeavors, and athletic activities.
Tufts takes pride in its special sense of collegiality and community, and its commitment to promoting diversity within the student body, the faculty, and the staff, as well as in the curriculum. Arts, Sciences, and Engineering will build and maintain an educational community that reflects the complexity and richness of our society. The philosophical underpinnings and key features of the educational and research mission of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering are:
to offer to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students a rigorous education with a global perspective that provides the knowledge and intellectual skills to become responsible and productive participants and leaders of society;
to ensure that students are well grounded in a discipline and have opportunities to develop other coherent areas of education and scholarship that bridge disciplines;
to enhance learning and develop the potential of each student beyond, as well as within, the classroom;
to encourage public service by students, faculty, and staff, and to integrate service activities and experiential learning with teaching and research;
to expect undergraduates and graduates to evaluate and respond to the impact of technology and the need for value-based decision making, particularly in areas of Tufts' strengths, such as environmental issues, international relations, and health;
to combine the characteristics of a teaching college with the opportunities of a research university;
to encourage and reward excellence in teaching, research, and other scholarly activities by its faculty;
to foster a diverse community reflective of the world in which we live;
and to maintain an
atmosphere of collegiality and community that encourages rapport among students, faculty,
staff, and administrators, diversity across disciplines, and a strong sense of common
values and purpose.