Durable Skills To Expand Across the Undergraduate Curriculum in 2027

In recent years, Utah legislation and higher education administration have emphasized the importance of retention, graduation, and job placement. In addition to disciplinary knowledge, students also need to learn, practice, and master cross-disciplinary durable skills, such as communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving.

“The world of work is constantly evolving, and we have a responsibility to prepare students not just for their first job, but for a lifetime of professional growth and opportunity,” expressed Senior Director of U Career Success Denise DeCoite. “Skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving are essential across every industry. By intentionally integrating these skills into the undergraduate experience, we are helping students recognize the value of what they are learning and giving them the confidence to translate that knowledge into meaningful careers.”

In February 2026, Undergraduate Studies launched the Durable Skills Framework with the goal of emphasizing the importance of durable skills in student learning and future job placement. To promote the infusion of durable skills into the curriculum, the Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence (MBECTE) recruited 44 faculty fellows from programs with historically low median salaries to undergo training in durable skills pedagogy and assessment over the Spring 2026 semester, revise a mandatory course from their program in Summer 2026, and teach the revised course this fall. Faculty fellows also contributed sample assignments integrating durable skills into a Faculty Toolkit, which will be made available campus-wide in December.

This effort resulted in the revision of 47 courses, 22 of which also carried general education or baccalaureate designations. Four of those 47 were also First Experience courses, and 3 each carried Honors, Sustainability, or Community Engaged Learning attributes. Based on the 2025-26 enrollment data, these 47 courses could reach more than 11,000 students annually, representing approximately $22.9 million in associated student tuition at work. In addition, approximately 10% of students enrolled in those courses in 2025-26 received D, E, W, or I grades; improving student engagement by connecting course content to real world skills could also reduce course retake costs.

Vice Provost for Student Success T. Chase Hagood emphasized the critical nature of this work: “What makes this initiative so powerful is its potential to transform the undergraduate experience at scale. We are embedding career readiness into the academic experience of every student, regardless of major. By creating opportunities for students to develop and practice these skills throughout their education, we are strengthening the connection between what students learn, how they persist, and what they can accomplish after graduation.”

In addition to course revisions, the 2026 Durable Skills Faculty Fellows were asked to provide presentations to their department and college peers. As more campus members became interested in the Durable Skills Initiative, the effort expanded beyond the faculty fellows cohort. The MBECTE developed Durable Skills Faculty Development Series for all instructors on campus; this series of virtual workshops is taking place across this semester and Spring 2027. It also led to parallel initiatives in Student Affairs, who integrated durable skills into student employee training and evaluation practices, and in Marriott Library who created faculty resources on Information and Technology Literacy.

The work is not done, however. In 2027, MBECTE will launch a second wave of faculty fellows. In this second phase, the work will shift from individual course redesign to coordinated integration across courses within undergraduate programs. Fellows will use technology developed by Undergraduate Studies’ Academic Innovation and Intelligence Lab to align program-level and course-level outcomes with durable skills, identify opportunities for repeated practice, and implement program-level integration plans using examples from the Durable Skills Toolkit developed in Phase One.

The second phase of Durable Skills fellows’ work will play out over the next year, starting now. Phase 2 Fellows will undergo orientation and training and then develop program-level integration plans in Spring 2027; the plans will then be implemented in the Fall 2027 semester.  This means that by Spring 2028, every undergraduate program at the University of Utah could have durable skills infused across several courses in the curriculum. Interested applicants should submit an application by December 11, 2026.

 

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