Courses: Curriculum Codes

The Trinity undergraduate curriculum categorizes courses to signal how they fulfill general education requirements. Courses may have one or more of the following codes associated with them. 


Code Description Type of Requirement
ALP Arts, Literatures, and Performance Areas of Knowledge
CCI Cross-Cultural Inquiry Modes of Inquiry
CZ Civilizations Areas of Knowledge
EI Ethical Inquiry Modes of Inquiry
FL Foreign Languages Modes of Inquiry
M Mathematics Areas of Knowledge (Pre-May 2004 requirement)
NS Natural Sciences Areas of Knowledge
QID Quantitative, Inductive, and Deductive Reasoning Modes of Inquiry (Pre-May 2004 requirement)
QS Quantitative Studies Areas of Knowledge
R Research Modes of Inquiry
SS Social Sciences Areas of Knowledge
STS Science, Technology, and Society Modes of Inquiry
W Writing Modes of Inquiry

How courses come to have their codes

Courses in Trinity College are assigned curricular codes through a process that begins at the department or program level with a proposal that a course bear certain codes. The proposal, depending upon the department or program, may originate with the individual instructor, with the director of undergraduate studies, or may emerge through a consultative process involving both. The department then submits the proposed codes for consideration by the Arts and Sciences Committee on Courses, which must approve codes.

Courses in Trinity College may have at most two Areas of Knowledge and no more than three Modes of Inquiry codes. Because of these limits, coding involves decisions as to which of the various codes best reflect the course content at the time the set of codes is approved. If the content (or the instructor) of a course later changes, such that the set of codes that the course bears no longer accurately reflects the course content, the codes may be changed. This can happen, however, only following reconsideration by the Courses Committee. The following policies govern the coding of courses:

  • Course code requests by departments must be made before the beginning of the semester in which the course is offered.
  • Code changes cannot be made on an ad hoc basis while a course is in progress.
  • Changes, once approved, may not be applied retroactively to a course. 

Note: The curricular codes that appear on DukeHub for a course on the first day of class in any given semester are final. Those and only those codes will apply towards a student’s general education requirements. No additional codes will be awarded concurrently or retroactively to that particular offering of the course.

How to find the curriculum codes for a given course

There are several ways to find curriculum codes:

  1. Log in to DukeHub, go to your bookbag, click on a course selection, and move your cursor over the "info" icon (a pop-up window will display the codes).
  2. Search for a course using the DukeHub Schedule Builder page, click the desired course, and move your cursor over the "info" icon. You can also search for courses by curriculum code in the Advanced Class Search page.
  3. Go to registrar.duke.edu, click on "Schedule of Courses," click on the semester of the course you are looking up, find the course, and move your cursor over the "info" icon.