2024-2025 Undergraduate Bulletin > General Education Program Requirements > I. Introduction

I. Introduction

The General Education Program at Central Michigan University provides students with a common set of academic skills, referred to as Competencies, as well as exposure to a broad knowledge base, referred to as the University Program.

Courses in the General Education Program are continuous with the rest of the university curriculum but present material in a manner that links knowledge and skills with the 21st-century lives students will lead after they graduate.

Graduates of Central Michigan University demonstrate an understanding of the basic forces, ideas, and values that shape the world. They are aware of the structure of organized human knowledge--the arts and humanities, natural and social sciences. They can organize and access a broad knowledge base relevant to the modern world. They are skilled in working with others, including those of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and in thinking reflectively about themselves as individuals and as members of society. Graduates value rational inquiry, honesty in scholarship, and life-long learning.

Specific Student Learning Objectives

The General Education Program is intended to assist students in attaining the specific learning outcomes listed below:

1. Demonstrate undergraduate level competence in written communication, oral communication, mathematics, and quantitative reasoning.
2. Examine and conceptualize contemporary problems through the application of procedures common in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
3. Display sensitivity to the influence of cultural values and diversity on human functioning.