Current freshmen might not be able to graduate under new general education requirements focusing on real-world applications of knowledge, the professor in charge of implementing the program said yesterday.

Backing away from plans that would have ended the 29-year-old Core Curriculum for all students in as few as two years, Jay M. Harris, chair of the faculty and student committee in charge of the transition, said that the Class of 2011 will definitely be able to graduate under the Core.

“They may have the option of finishing under Gen Ed, but that I can’t guarantee,” Harris said. Current sophomores, juniors, and seniors will graduate under the Core.

After speculation about the possibility of relaxing requirements as the Core nears its end, administrators are taking concrete steps to ensure that more departmental courses across the board will count for Core credit in the transition to Gen Ed.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs Georgene B. Herschbach said that guidelines determining which departmental courses count for Core credit will be expanded.

“They are much more flexible than they were in the past,” Herschbach said in a brief telephone interview last night.

“Everyone wants to be sure that during this transition the Core program continues to be robust,” Herschbach added.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith is expected to send a letter in the next few days asking professors to offer departmental courses for Core credit under the relaxed guidelines, Herschbach said. Smith could not be reached for comment last night.

The move to give students more departmental options to fulfill Core requirements was discussed at a meeting of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) Wednesday.

Classes without final examinations, classes taught by visiting professors or not offered in multiple years, and classes with capped enrollment may now fulfill Core requirements under the relaxed guidelines, according to Prithvi R. Shankar ’09, a student representative at the CUE meeting.

Determining which classes will now receive Core credit will occur on a “course-by-course basis,” Shankar said.

Students who are either currently enrolled in these classes or who have previously taken these classes will receive notification via e-mail that the course gives Core credit, according to Shankar.

The push to bring more departmental courses under the Core umbrella comes as a student and faculty committee puts the final touches on a transition plan that will phase out the Core in favor of a new set of Gen Ed requirements.

The Gen Ed curriculum, approved by the Faculty last May, focuses on connecting liberal arts inquiry to the lives students will live after Harvard.

While the committee once considered a “hard transition” that would bring all students under Gen Ed requirements starting as soon as September 2009, it has since decided that current sophomores, juniors, and seniors will graduate under the Core, according to Harris, the Wolfson professor of Jewish studies and chair of the Gen Ed implementation committee.

During the transition, Harris said, the College will offer courses that count for Core credit and for Gen Ed credit—and some courses may count for both.

The committee is currently finalizing the timing of the switchover to Gen Ed, Harris said, declining to offer more details on the transition.

But the implementation plan, parts of which must be approved by a full vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, should be ready before the end of the semester, Harris said.

“My target is to have this adopted by December,” he said.

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Lois E. Beckett can be reached at lbeckett@fas.harvard.edu.