Tufts is a world-class research institution with an abiding commitment to excellence in teaching and learning. What happens in the classroom is the essence of the Tufts experience–active dialogue , engaging coursework that extends into the field and around the world and opportunities to think outside the textbook and ask the big questions that really matter.
Our students become leaders who possess a keen awareness of the world around them and their role in it.
- Tufts is committed to the ideal of active citizenship, which is infused throughout the institution.
- Students are immersed in a global perspective from the moment they step on campus, whether they are undergraduates studying at Tufts' campus in Talloires, France, graduate students of public health studying disease in Africa, or Fletcher School students discussing the latest foreign crisis.
- Diversity is another important element of the learning and teaching experience. Students come from widely divergent backgrounds, and faculty bring a range of perspectives and life experiences to the classroom.
Learning initiatives and resources at Tufts include:
- The Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) conducts faculty-led workshops from a range of disciplines and a Faculty Fellow Seminar program to explore topics related to teaching and assessment.
- The University-wide Committee for Teaching and Faculty Development (UCTFD) continually seeks to improve teaching in all disciplines, by sponsoring events such as the annual University Conference on Teaching and Learning.
- University Seminars brings faculty from different schools together to teach courses addressing contemporary issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Both undergraduate and graduate students take part in the courses, which in the past have covered topics such as the "one health" philosophy and water and diplomacy.
- The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service prepares students across Tufts to be lifelong active citizens. Tisch College offers extensive programming, provides curricular and hands-on opportunities for students, and supports faculty research in the area of civic engagement.
- The leadership minor in the School of Arts and Sciences offers students the opportunity to study leadership theory from a multidisciplinary perspective, emphasizing leadership that bridges cultural divides. In the School of Engineering, the Gordon Institute sponsors programs in both engineering leadership and entrepreneurial leadership, with opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students.
Other related initiatives:
- Academic Technology develops methods for teaching with technology across Tufts. Every summer, Academic Technology offers the Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning with Technology.
- The Graduate Institute for Teaching (GIFT) is a mentoring program for Tufts Ph.D. graduate students who aspire to become college–level faculty.
- The Training in Education and Critical Research Skills (TEACRS) program, based in the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, gives postdoctoral trainees across the university the opportunity to gain teaching skills they hope to bring to a career in academia. TEACRS participants teach at partner schools in the Boston area, where they seek to make a career in the sciences more accessible for underprivileged populations.
- The Tufts Environmental Literacy Institute was revived in 2008 to help faculty incorporate environmental themes into their courses across the curriculum.
"We believe that, in addition to the course material that we want our students to learn, we also see their education as a process of developing a consciousness about the world and taking on the responsibility to make the world a better place."
Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Senior Vice President