Diploma Programme curriculum—core requirements
Creativity, action, service (CAS)
The CAS requirement is a fundamental part of the programme and takes seriously the importance of life outside the world of scholarship, providing a refreshing counterbalance to academic studies.
- Creativity is interpreted broadly to include a wide range of arts activities as well as the creativity students demonstrate in designing and implementing service projects.
- Action can include not only participation in individual and team sports but also taking part in expeditions and in local or international projects.
- Service encompasses a host of community and social service activities. Some examples include helping children with special needs, visiting hospitals and working with refugees or homeless people.
Students are expected to be involved in CAS activities for the equivalent of at least three hours each week during the two years of the programme.
Each school appoints a CAS supervisor who is responsible for providing a varied choice of activities for students. Programmes are monitored by IB regional offices.
A system of self-evaluation encourages students to reflect on the benefits of CAS participation to themselves and to others, and to evaluate the understanding and insights acquired.
Find out more
Order the IB publication: Creativity, action, service guide.
"Such qualities might include a willingness to undertake and the capacity to succeed in a rigorous curriculum, an engagement with a coherent approach to the world of ideas, a spirit of community that extends both to fellow IB students and to an outside community in need, and the tenacity and skills of a successful researcher."
Theodore O’Neill, dean of admissions at the University of Chicago, Illinois