General Education

Promising Models

College of Charleston
In the fall of 1996 the Faculty Senate of the College of Charleston established an ad hoc committee to initiate and facilitate a three-year campus wide discussion of General Education requirements. A Web site was created to record the progress of this discussion and to provide links to other relevant information both at the College of Charleston and elsewhere. This web site describes the process of transforming General Education at the College of Charleston and links to other campuses' transformation initiatives. Designed as a resource for members of the College of Charleston community, the site provides information useful to other campus practitioners interested in redesigning their General Education programs.

Eastern New Mexico University
Recipient of the 1997 Pew Leadership Award, Eastern New Mexico University has established an ongoing strategic planning process in order to address priorities, achieve goals, and monitor objectives on a continuing basis. The General Education curriculum at Eastern New Mexico University has been designed to help students develop communication skills; gain a sense of social, ethical, and cultural values; and appreciate the application of these values in society. The institutional mission's focus is to: prepare students for careers and advanced study, impart citizenship and leadership skills and values, support and expand the role of education and excellent teaching at all levels, and enable citizens to respond to a rapidly changing world.

Fairleigh Dickinson University
The University Core at Fairleigh Dickinson University has received national recognition for its innovative approach to general education. Fairleigh Dickinson has addressed American pluralism and comparative world cultures in a four-semester required core curriculum taken by all students. The four courses include Perspectives on the Individual, The American Experience: Quest for Freedom, Cross-Cultural Perspectives, and Global Issues.

Grand Valley State University
Characterized by its subject matter method of instruction, the Grand Valley General Education program facilitates a generalized knowledge and familiarity with all of the basic areas of human thought and endeavor and develops the skills of thinking and relating that are associated with the liberally educated person. The program includes courses in "all-college" categories with cross-disciplinary, integrative content-Formal Reasoning; Foreign Cultural and Multi-Cultural Approaches; History of Western Civilization; and Critical Examinations of Values and Ideas; and divisional categories courses based in the traditional liberal arts disciplines.

Indiana State University
The goal of Indiana State University's General Education Program is to provide an essential foundation and broad academic base for students in all curricula, both liberal arts and professional. The program is designed to encourage each student's development as a rounded human being, an informed citizen, and an individual capable of functioning effectively in an evolving society. All students working toward a bachelor's degree at Indiana State University are required to complete at least 47 hours of General Education course work, including at least 11 hours in Basic Studies and 36 hours in Liberal Studies. At Indiana State University, the major and General Education are parallel and interdependent programs.

Kalamazoo College
A liberal arts education at Kalamazoo College ideally comprises all components of the K-Plan: on-campus coursework, Career Development experiences, Study Abroad, and the Senior Individualized Project. Students progress through this education within the developmental framework of Foundations, skills upon which further intellectual and personal development depends; Explorations which broaden and deepen knowledge and understanding, whether through course work or off-campus experiences; and Connections, discovering ways in which knowledge, skills, and ideas from one course or discipline inform those from another, as well as ways in which the interplay of academic study and off-campus experience provides fresh insight and deepened comprehension of one’s self and the world.

Miami University of Ohio
Miami University's Plan for Liberal Education is composed of Foundation Courses, at least one of which presents a historical perspective and at least one that presents a perspective different than the dominant cultural heritage of the United States; a Thematic Sequence consisting of a series of related courses that focus on a theme or subject in a developmental way and build or expand upon knowledge or perspectives gained from preceding courses; and the Capstone Experience, which integrates liberal learning with specialized knowledge and emphasizes sharing of ideas, synthesis, and critical, informed reflection as significant precursors to action and includes student initiative in defining and investigating problems or projects.

Michigan State University
The MSU College of Arts and Letters has established two non-major units, American Thought and Language and the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities, that offer required classes in writing and cultural awareness for all undergraduates at Michigan State University. American Thought and Language (ATL) offers the “Tier One” required writing classes for all students. All ATL classes are designed to strengthen students' writing ability and broaden their understanding of the American experience. The Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities offers the required arts and humanities (IAH) classes for all undergraduates at MSU.

Millikin University
Created in 1995 and approved in 1996, the Program of Student Learning at Millikin is designed to help prepare students for responsible and rewarding lives and revolves around the following core values: synthesis of theory and practice, critical thinking, ethics and values, and intercultural studies. Three components make up the basis of the Program: the Major, the co-curriculum, and University Studies courses. In contrast to the former General Education requirements, the University Studies component of the new Program requires courses in each of a student's years at Millikin.

Olivet College
Olivet has instituted The Olivet Plan to provide students with an educational experience for acquiring the skills needed to succeed in a changing world, both in a career and in life. At the heart of The Olivet Plan are five key groups of educational outcomes that define skills that all students must acquire prior to graduation, whatever their academic major or career aspirations. The Olivet Plan gives students the skills essential for success in a highly competitive marketplace and teaches lessons in character and responsibility.

Saint Joseph's College (Indiana)
In 1969, the faculty of Saint Joseph's College redesigned the general education curriculum so that all students would take part in an integrated, transdisciplinary program of studies, taught by members of various departments, called the Core Curriculum. Structured around the over-arching theme of Christian Humanism, the Core Curriculum challenges students to find relationships among the various disciplines, and to examine their own values and beliefs in relation to the Christian Tradition. Throughout all four years, students work to develop verbal and written communication skills, learn to share ideas with classmates in discussion, and are exposed to different ideas, values and cultures. Since its inception, the structure of the Core Curriculum has remained basically the same. However, the content of each segment of Core has changed and developed to keep pace with current scholarship in these areas. The Curriculum is guided by six goals.

Syracuse University
Syracuse University has recently moved from a traditional research university paradigm, discipline- and faculty-centered in its priorities and operating style, to a student-centered research university that makes student learning its highest priority. In February 1992, Chancellor and President Kenneth A. Shaw drafted a report with 33 initiatives to help create a more learning- and student-centered culture. A January 1998 self-assessment report enumerates the teaching and curricular innovations at Syracuse University. Students in all schools fulfill the requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences' (liberal arts) core curriculum, including basic courses in writing, mathematics, or a foreign language, and introductory courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Portland State University
In 1994, Portland State University adopted a new general education program, University Studies, which provides students with a coherent and cohesive program of integrated learning experiences. The ultimate goal of University Studies is to enable graduates to develop the attitudes and skills needed to pursue lifelong learning. The University Studies Program includes a year-long interdisciplinary Freshman Inquiry course team-taught by faculty members from diverse disciplines; a one-term Transfer Transition course that provides a gateway into University Studies for the transferring student; three Sophomore Inquiry courses selected from a possible 25 topics; an Upper Division Cluster that links to one of the Sophomore Inquiry courses, and a community-based Senior Capstone course.

University of California, Los Angeles
UCLA's restructing of its general education curriculum includes 10 courses (a minimum of 48 units) in the following three foundation areas: Arts and Humanities, Society and Culture, and Scientific Inquiry. The College of Letters and Science requires its students to participate in a number of general education courses at UCLA. The aim of these courses is to provide students with an intellectual foundation that will help them to understand the purpose of a research university, achieve professional success, and play an active role as a citizen in our multicultural democratic society.

University of Charleston
The University of Charleston has explicitly designed a set of institutional structures and rewards that foster the integration of liberal learning outcomes throughout the curriculum in an effort to become intentional about teaching and learning and about the demonstration of exit level liberal learning outcomes. The impact of merit-based performance appraisals, program reviews, and the creation of a public culture of assessment upon student learning are examined in this PowerPoint presentation (366KB), Aligning Goals and Practices: What Gives? What Counts? What Goes? from AAC&U's 2004 General Education and Assessment meeting.

University of Delaware
A key feature of the University's new General Education Program (GEP) is a collection of first-year interdisciplinary "Pathways to Discovery" courses. These thematic, integrative courses for first-year students are designed to introduce students to the academic resources of the university and to teach basic intellectual skills required for a successful undergraduate experience.

University of Southern California
George Sanchez, Director, Program in American Studies and Ethnicity and Associate Professor of History, gave this presentation at AAC&U's 2004 General Education and Assessment meeting. In this complete text of Dr. Sanchez's speech, Challenging Student Identities: Confronting Race and Class, he admits he has not always been a fan of general education but concludes with the story of a recent interaction with a student, about which he states: "This exchange reminded me of the joy I get from teaching, opening up worlds of inquiry to students that are not separated from their own worlds, but can connect them with the worlds of scholarship and theory that I know. It reminds me of the very best that general education in 'liberal education' can provide, creating informed citizens from the multitude of experiences and backgrounds we see in the classroom." The PowerPoint presentation (1,183 KB) is also available.

Wagner College
Wagner College has designed an undergraduate program where students receive a broad education in the liberal arts while gaining the benefits of studying at least one subject in depth, a major. Beginning with the entering class of Fall 1998, Wagner initiated a new curriculum and a new set of graduation requirements. Under The Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts, students complete a liberal arts core program and a major, totaling 36 units/courses. As part of these requirements, students also complete three "Learning Communities" before graduation.

Washington State University
Established by the faculty as part of all baccaulaurate degree programs, the General Education Program at Washington State University sets the foundation of the undergraduate curriculum. General Education is designed to accommodate the increasing specialization of the University within the broader, traditional objectives of higher education, while encouraging students to develop themselves to the fullest extent possible. General Education encompasses the following aims: Realizing Individual Student Potentials; Preparation for Membership in the Community; Providing a Foundation for the Major; and Achieving Methodological Competence and Integration of Knowledge.The curriculum stresses the acquisition of a working knowledge of a broad range of scholarly disciplines in order to foster understanding of the major fields of knowledge and the interrelationships between them.

AAC&U offers these resources only as possible models of interest and has not submitted each of them to any substantial peer or quality review. If you have questions about any particular resource, please contact the institution sponsoring it directly.