WHAT IS GENERAL EDUCATION?

General Education (GE) is your academic introduction to the university. It exposes you to the fundamental ideas and intellectual activities that scholars across campus – scholars in the arts, the humanities, the social sciences and natural sciences – draw on in their work. The courses offered in the GE curriculum provide diverse perspectives on how human beings think and feel, solve problems, express ideas, and create and discover new knowledge. These courses also help you acquire the skills essential to university-level learning: they challenge you to assess information critically, frame and deliver reasoned and persuasive arguments both orally and in writing, and identify, acquire and use the knowledge necessary to solve problems. GE is the foundation of a UCLA education.

UCLA requires its undergraduates to take a number of General Education courses out of the deep conviction that living a successful and satisfying life demands a wide range of skills and knowledge. Whatever area of specialization or career plan, students will need the ability to reason logically and quantitatively, and to communicate effectively. Further, as a consumer and citizen, they will need to have an understanding of the ideas and cultural movements that shape our values, the ways in which humans organize and govern their societies, and the sciences that explain and increasingly shape our environment.

GE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE AND CHARGE

The General Education Governance Committee (GEGC) is a committee of the Undergraduate Council (UgC). It advises the Undergraduate Council and Dean of Undergraduate Education on all matters pertaining to General Education (GE) at UCLA.

The committee is charged by the Undergraduate Council to carry out the following duties:

  • Define the values and purposes of General Education at UCLA.
  • Provide clear guidelines and procedures for the development of GE courses and their assignment to specific foundation areas of knowledge and foundational subgroups within the University’s General Education curricular framework.
  • Review and recommend to UgC GE credit for all courses transmitted by the College and school Faculty Executive Committees to satisfy UCLA GE foundational area requirements.
  • Review and recommend to UgC suspension or rescission of GE credit for all schools found to be in noncompliance with GE principles and practices.
  • Conduct periodic self-reviews and evaluation of UCLA’s GE foundation areas and programs of instruction.