The University of New England offers a unique educational environment that blends the traditional liberal arts and sciences with professional focused programs to prepare students to make a difference in the world through meaningful and rewarding careers, lifelong learning, and enlightened lives. The University fosters critical inquiry through a student-centered, academic environment rich in research, scholarship, creative activity, and service while providing opportunities for acquiring and applying knowledge in selected clinical, professional, and community settings.

Central to the undergraduate educational experience at the University of New England is the Core Curriculum. It provides an innovative common learning experience for all UNE undergraduates. Students are invited to explore four college-wide themes from multiple disciplinary perspectives and to develop important intellectual skills. Students focus on a theme each year - (1) Environmental Awareness, (2) Social and Global Awareness, (3) Critical Thinking: Human Responses to Problems and Challenges, and (4) Citizenship. Designed to provide a foundation in the liberal arts, the core reflects the values of the college and is designed to prepare students for living informed, thoughtful, and active lives in a complex and changing society.

The core curriculum emphasizes active, collaborative, and experiential learning. It challenges students to transfer knowledge from one arena to another, appreciate different disciplinary perspectives on the same topic, and integrate what they have learned to construct their own knowledge. We expect UNE graduates to have been exposed to certain major issues, have learned about them, analyzed their own views and developed more informed perspectives.

UNE offers over 40 programs at the undergraduate level and various graduate programs that provide unique opportunities for graduates to serve their communities. Students have the opportunity to major in programs leading to careers in aquaculture and marine science, education, environmental and political science, health and medical science, and social and behavioral science fields. Unique learning experiences are offered through hands-on programs such as the Applied Sociological Experience which expands the understanding of culture, social issues, and political life on a global scale and study abroad programs with focus topics such as Social and Environmental Justice in Latin America, Sustainable Development and Social Change in Central America, and Nation Building, Globalization, and Decolonizing the Mind: Southern African Perspectives.

All entering first-year environmental students participate in a year-long learning Green Learning Community (GLC) focused on the fundamental themes of environmental studies. The GLC integrates courses in biology, literature, environmental issues and an integrating seminar experience over two semesters. This interdisciplinary approach enables students to understand more clearly the relationships between environmental issues, biology and humanities and at the same time improve skills in critical thinking, writing, oral communication, research, and use of computers. Experiential learning activities are central.

In keeping with the University’s mission to protect the health of the environment, the Marine Science Education and Research Center incorporated state-of-the-art “green design” principles into its construction and operation. The central principle of “green design” is that a building should have as little negative impact on the environment as possible. In application, this principle extends beyond construction materials to issues from site planning and preparation to energy usage. Even the distance that materials come from can be a factor when you consider fuel (and resulting pollutants) for transportation.

UNE’s Center for Sustainable Communities is an internship and service learning program that creates mutually beneficial partnerships between students and environmental organizations in the communities surrounding the Biddeford campus. Through hands-on involvement with local governments, non-profit organizations, and community groups, students are able to field test academic learning in situations that make tangible the challenge to "think globally, act locally."