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General Education Program

The General Education program at Central Michigan University provides all CMU students with a wide-ranging undergraduate education that prepares them to adapt and excel in their future careers. Graduates of CMU leave with a broad understanding of the forces, ideas, and values that shape our changing world. They learn how to think like an artist, a humanist, a natural scientist, and a social scientist. They can use these ways of thinking to understand new areas of knowledge 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 members of society. Graduates value rational inquiry, honesty in scholarship, and life-long learning.

The General Education program consists of two areas of study:

  • The Competencies provide a common set of academic and professional skills.
  • The University Program teaches students how to think and learn from different perspectives (humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences) and how to define their place in the world.
The General Education program assists students in attaining the following learning outcomes:

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

  • Course proposals for the General Education program
  • The student application for applied experience credit in the General Education program
  • The application for a faculty-led experience to count toward General Education credit