General Education

General Education Course Requirements  

What is General Education?

If you’ve had a conversation about college with friends, family, or your high school teachers and guidance counsellors, chances are good you’ve heard the term “general education” or “gen ed” before. A continual topic of discussion in higher education, general education is an important part of a four-year undergraduate degree. Despite the central role general education plays in college conversations and curriculum, many students, both current and prospective, have the same question: what exactly is general education?

The answer is surprisingly simple: general education is university education.

Many people consider their major—their chosen area of focus or specialization, often seen as preparation for a job or entry into a professional field after graduation—as the main part of their college education. While the major is certainly important, specialized programs and professional curricula that are equivalent to majors are available at technical and vocational schools, junior and community colleges, and similar post-secondary institutions that don’t offer four-year degrees. What sets a bachelor’s degree program apart from those other programs is the presence of general education: courses in fundamental fields outside the major that provide students with a broader set of skills and familiarity with a variety of professional fields besides their own chosen specialization.

While vocational, technical, and professional programs teach only the specific skills needed in a given field, a four-year bachelor’s degree includes these skills plus those that don’t belong to one specific profession—skills like critical and creative thinking, writing and communication for a variety of audiences, information literacy, and logical and analytical problem solving. These skills, along with the knowledge considered necessary to be an informed, educated member of modern society, are what make up the bulk of general education at the bachelor’s degree level and set it apart from other, specialized degrees and certifications. In other words, general education is what makes a four-year college experience different; it’s what makes a university education unique.

UMW’s General Education Program

All degree-seeking students at the University of Montana Western, with the exception of those pursuing an Associate of Applied Science or a specialized Associate of Arts, are expected to complete the university’s General Education Program. By pursuing general education, along with a major program and any additional electives, students gain the knowledge and broad intellectual and practical skills needed to address the challenges of contemporary life and achieve the highest levels of success in the twenty-first century.

Program Courses

The General Education Program at UMW comprises courses in the following core categories:

• Written and Oral Communication
• Mathematics
• Behavioral and Social Sciences
• History
• Expressive Arts
• Literary and Artistic Studies
• Natural Sciences

By completing courses in these designated areas, usually in the first two years of study, students acquire knowledge of and experiences with human cultures and the physical and natural world, the foundation of a contemporary education and the necessary support for advanced study in both major coursework and upper-division university electives. Students are encouraged to work closely with their advisors to select courses in each category that will develop their academic abilities, complement work in their major, and support their individual goals and interests.

University Learning Outcomes and the University Mission

The University of Montana Western has further identified the following University Learning Outcomes (ULOs), embedded in courses designated as general education, as the basis for its General Education Program:

• Communication Skills
• Creative Expression
• Critical Analysis and Logical Thinking
• Historical Inquiry and Analysis
• Lifelong Wellness
• Quantitative Reasoning
• Scientific Inquiry and Analysis

Along with the knowledge and experiences provided in the core categories listed above, the ULOs represent the foundational skills necessary for success both in advanced university studies and beyond; as such, they are the focus of the General Education Program.

In keeping with UMW’s mission to provide immersive practices and continuous improvement in student learning, the General Education Program is experiential, multidisciplinary, and multicultural: courses present a breadth of content including surveys of essential and fundamental information, methods of identifying and solving problems, approaches to communicating the result of scholarly endeavors, and academic principles and inquiry skills that can be transferred or adapted to other disciplines. The overall intent of the program is to provide a robust academic experience in a variety of foundational courses, with each contributing to the development of a student’s knowledge, communication skills, and intellectual abilities.  

General Education Codes in Course Descriptions

Courses designated for general education purposes are indicated by the following codes in their course descriptions. While other courses can apply toward general education, courses carrying 

the codes below have been accepted as meeting the requirements for the General Education Program.

Common Course Numbering and Transferring General Education Credits

Common Course Numbering among the Montana University System (MUS) institutions ensures that students can transfer from one MUS institution to another with minimal loss of credit time. The UMW General Education program is consistent with the Montana University System General Education Standards.

Montana University System General Education Core Curriculum

New students transferring to UMW from any of the schools in the Montana University System have three options for transferring general education core requirements.

Option 1: Complete a specific campus’s lower-division general education requirements

• Students complete all lower division courses of a campus-specific general education program prior to transferring. Students may still be required to take additional general education coursework at the upper-division level at the new campus.

Option 2: Complete the MUS Core General Education curriculum

• Students can complete a set of courses known as the MUS Core transferable general education curriculum (MUS Core) consisting of 30 lower-division credits distributed across six categories. Students may still be required to take additional general education coursework at the upper-division level.

Option 3: Obtain an AA or AS

• A general Associate of Arts (AA) or an Associate of Science (AS) degree indicates that students have completed the general education program of their specific two –year campus.