Curriculum Initiatives
Bentley has an ongoing tradition of advancing curricular and teaching innovation. In recent years, we developed an integrated required general business core curriculum that spans all four years of the undergraduate program, and created new undergraduate majors and minors in areas such as corporate accounting and finance, public policy and social change, information design and corporate communications, cyberlaw, international studies, and information technology. At the graduate level, we offer a unique family of MS degree programs along with our distinctive MBA.
Bentley is a leader in infusing information technology across the academic enterprise. In keeping with our well-known commitment to state-of-the art technology, the Academic Technology Center works with faculty to research, develop and integrate IT into the curriculum. Our host of world-class, IT-intensive centers — including the Trading Room, Center for Marketing Technology, Center for Languages and International Collaboration, Accounting Center for Electronic Learning and Business Measurement, and Design and Usability Center — provide real-world settings to enhance teaching and learning.
Working with faculty to enhance excellence in teaching and curriculum development in all academic disciplines are two long-time Bentley educators who hold Wilder Teaching Professorships (established through a gift from trustee Joel B. Wilder '58 and his family). They pursue this through mentoring, workshops, presentations and other activities.
Continuing our longstanding commitment to curricular and teaching innovation in the arts and sciences, Bentley has launched a sweeping initiative funded by the Davis Educational Foundation. Inspiring Intellectual and Civic Engagement: Integrating Liberal Learning aims to further infuse a liberal arts focus across all disciplines at Bentley, enhancing the intellectual development of our business-focused students. Targeted skills sets and perspectives include ethics and social responsibility, technology and effective communication, creative thinking and critical analysis, service to the community, and diversity and global citizenship.
Other teaching and curriculum initiatives at Bentley include:
Business Ethics Gadfly Workshop
Established in 1991 by Bentley's internationally recognized Center for Business Ethics, the Gadfly program helps faculty integrate ethical issues into courses in both business and the arts and sciences disciplines. The program is now offered also to visiting professors from the U.S. and abroad.
Class Book Program
The program and events surrounding it — author visits, campus-wide conversations, and the use of the book in courses across the curriculum – creates a central intellectual focus for first-year students.
Communication Across the Curriculum
Bentley's Communication Across the Curriculum Program fosters excellence in communication as an essential element of undergraduate education. By emphasizing writing and speaking skills in intensive courses throughout the curriculum, we ensure that all Bentley graduates enter the workforce armed with the skills they need to express their thoughts effectively.
Gender Studies
The program examines how gender structures our lives, ideas, institutions, society, and cultural practices. As an interdisciplinary program, Gender Studies combines the analytic tools of different disciplines, incorporating both practical and theoretical approaches to understanding how gender functions.
Honors Program
A small group of top students in the entering class are invited to participate in this four-year program, designed to provide them with greater academic challenge and satisfaction. In addition to honors courses, students participate in special co-curricular activities (films, distinguished speakers, student colloquia and cultural field trips) to deepen the intellectual experience.
Service-Learning
Our nationally acclaimed Bentley Service-Learning Center works with faculty to develop service-learning projects that are embedded within course curricula. Service-learning is designed to promote students' learning and civic engagement through a combination of academic study, meaningful community service, and reflective thinking.
