What’s New in Mason Core

Updates about Mason Core categories, courses, and other important information will be posted below and shared out in our newsletter. Please reach out to us at masoncor@gmu.edu with questions.


Global Contexts, Just Societies, and Mason Apex designations now available in Courseleaf!  

Ready to submit a course for one of our new designations? The Global Contexts, Just Societies, and Mason Apex designations are now available in Courseleaf for your course proposals. As a reminder, Global Contexts is replacing the Global Understanding category, and no new Global Understanding courses will be approved moving forward. Existing Global Understanding courses will need to be resubmitted over the next year to be considered for the Global Contexts category.   

The Just Societies designation is a flag that must be applied in addition to another Mason Core Exploration category. This flag may be obtained in two ways:    

  1. Existing Arts, Global Contexts (coming in 2024-2025), Literature, Natural Science, and Social and Behavioral Sciences Mason Core courses can be revised to include the Just Societies learning outcomes.    
  1. A new course can be developed that meets the appropriate Arts, Global Contexts (coming in 2024-2025), Literature, Natural Science, and Social and Behavioral Sciences Mason Core learning outcomes as well as the learning outcomes for Just Societies. The review process is conducted simultaneously for both sets of outcomes.    

For more information on the upcoming enhancements to Mason Core, please see the Enhancements FAQ page.