The change is set for fall 2027. Students will still need 42 credit hours of core coursework.
Texas Tech University System regents approved a revised core curriculum Wednesday for Texas Tech University in Lubbock and two other system universities. Regent Shelley Sweatt said 21 courses came off Texas Tech’s core list, leaving 151 options, according to Jessica Priest’s reporting published by News From The States.
Courses listed in Texas Tech’s 2026–27 catalog that are absent from the fall 2027 inventory include The Holocaust in Literature and Film (GERM 2312) and Literature, Social Justice, and the Environment (ENGL 2310), both in Language, Philosophy, and Culture. The revised list also omits Intersectionalities: Race, Class, and Gender in a Global World (WGS 2305) and Belonging and Intercultural Communication in the Workplace (HRDV 2303), both in Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Students using the fall 2027 core list will have to choose other courses to meet those requirements.
What it means for students
“Removing a course from the core is not the same as removing it from the catalog.”
Regent Shelley Sweatt, quoted in coverage published by News From The States
Sweatt said many of the courses would still be offered “as electives or part of a major or minor.” Students planning for fall 2027 can check their catalog year and degree audit in DegreeWorks and ask an adviser how the change applies to completed or planned courses.
How the courses were reviewed
Senate Bill 37, passed in 2025, requires public university governing boards to review their core curricula at least every five years. Sweatt said faculty committees and administrators began reviewing the core in May and the chancellor’s office later reviewed the courses individually, according to coverage published by News From The States. The official agenda book says the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee’s action is final. The item covered Texas Tech, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University. The agenda lists Jan. 1, 2027, for certification and fall 2027 for implementation of the revised course lists. The Texas Tech University System also provides the meeting video.
At the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce’s State of the Texas Tech System luncheon on Sept. 8, 2026, Chancellor Brandon Creighton discussed the system’s earlier review of classroom content and said other Texas university systems had followed Tech’s lead, according to Jessica Priest’s reporting published by KTTZ.
We’re going to lead. Some of it will be uncomfortable.
Brandon Creighton, Texas Tech University System chancellor
For comparison, under the same state law, Texas A&M–College Station removed 78 of 260 courses from its core, according to the university’s provost. At West Texas A&M in Canyon, regents removed both African American history courses from the core, according to the board exhibit.
