DAHLONEGA — North Georgia College & State University President David Potter seized the on-campus meeting of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents as an opportunity to share the university’s plan to internationalize its programs through more foreign language and study abroad courses.

Also at the Tuesday meeting, the Board of Regents discussed a new core curriculum for all of Georgia’s 35 public colleges and universities that aims to give undergraduates a more global perspective.

George Rainbolt, chairman of the Georgia State University Philosophy Department, helped to develop the new curriculum earlier this year that underscores the importance of courses encouraging critical thinking. The board is scheduled to vote on the new curriculum today.

“I think we have a good core right now, but it’s over 10 years old and needs to be improved,” Rainbolt said.

He said the new core curriculum allows flexibility for institutions to choose an emphasis on foreign language or technology, for example. The proposed core curriculum would be more manageable for students who intend to transfer to other system schools, Rainbolt said.

The proposed new core curriculum also would implement assessments for

undergraduates before they begin courses for their major.

“Right now at the core university system level, the only assessment we’re doing is the Georgia Regents’ Test,” he said. “... In my view, it’s not a very good assessment.”

After careful review by the University System of Georgia Core Curriculum Evaluation Committee, the proposed policy change would hold institutions more accountable for student learning. Rainbolt said students could be assessed by national tests, improvements between mid-term and final term papers or on portfolios containing various course work.

He said under the proposed policy, professors within the University System of Georgia would review other institutions’ student work and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools also would play a role in scoring assessments.

The result would be more rigorous undergraduate programs that are more in tune with one another academically, Rainbolt said.

Schools with outstanding programs in biology, for example, could measure student learning through assessments. Such programs could be identified and replicated in other system institutions, he said.

Potter said he supports the new core curriculum.

“I think its going to give students a lot of choice but within a framework that is appropriate,” he said. “I think it’s also going to give us a core that will allow us to maintain our own identity and help us to accomplish our goals. This really gives us a chance to reinforce our focus on internationalization.”

Rainbolt said if the board approves the new core curriculum policy today, it will become effective in the fall of 2011 for four-year institutions and in 2012 for two-year institutions.