Signature courses allow UT Austin students to have a shared academic experience to start them off well in their undergraduate careers. For faculty, development of these courses invites members from all disciplines to play a role in laying the groundwork for successful thinking, learning, writing, and presenting, as well as to join in the critical conversation about the goals of undergraduate education. By bringing first-year students into regular contact with top faculty, we begin to weave them into the academic fabric of the university and solidify the expectation that students interact with faculty from across the schools and colleges.
Signature Courses may be taught by distinguished faculty from any college or school at the university. These must be regular departmental faculty who have been recommended as good teachers by their department chairs. The program calls for regular faculty in the hope that incoming students will come to know faculty with whom they may wish to work in later years. Regular faculty include tenured and tenure-track professors, as well as senior lecturers and, in special cases, adjunct or emeriti professors.