Source reporting: Texas Scorecard
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has approved revised core curricula across the system following a review required by a state higher-education law enacted in 2025.
Texas Scorecard reported that the regents approved the overhaul during a September 3 meeting. Citing reporting by the Houston Chronicle, the article said 78 courses were removed from the core, approximately 30 percent of the previous offering. Most of the affected courses were associated with the College Station campus.
The report identified removed offerings in subjects involving climate policy, race, gender, activism, and other interdisciplinary topics. Removal from the core does not necessarily mean every course is abolished; it changes whether a course counts toward the general-education requirements applicable to large numbers of students. The distinction matters because core status influences enrollment, degree planning, and how public universities define the baseline education supported by tuition and taxpayer funding.
The review was conducted under Senate Bill 37, which requires public university governing boards to examine general-education curricula on a recurring five-year schedule. According to Texas Scorecard, Regent Sam Torn described the approval as an initial step and indicated that additional review would continue.
The board meeting also included personnel actions and a briefing on the New World screwworm threat to livestock. The article reported 47 total Texas cases, with three active, and said federal agriculture officials expected eradication efforts to continue into next summer. Those matters were separate from the curriculum vote.
The governance significance lies in the transfer of direct responsibility to appointed regents. Senate Bill 37 makes governing boards accountable for reviewing course content and academic standards instead of leaving those decisions entirely within individual campuses or departments.
That authority also creates a transparency obligation. Students, faculty, lawmakers, and taxpayers need access to the final course lists, the criteria used for removal or retention, and the academic and financial effects of the changes. Public documentation would make it possible to determine whether decisions were applied consistently across the system and whether students close to graduation face unexpected degree-plan changes.
Future reviews will show whether the new process becomes a stable standards-based system or produces recurring disputes over academic content. For now, the regents’ action represents a concrete implementation of the Legislature’s new oversight framework.