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The General Education Program is designed to unfold in phases for each student as they move toward degree completion. The program provides foundational courses, which are the building blocks of lifelong learning and success in other courses. It provides an opportunity for exploration, where students come into contact with ideas, traditions, disciplines, and skills which can extend beyond ones they even knew existed. In this phase, students often discover the major that truly inspires them or the idea that brings together their goals or identity. As students move toward the completion of their major, the final phase of the general education program becomes most salient. In this final phase, students find new pathways to integrate ideas with those of their research core, creating opportunities for transformational knowledge production. Also, general education courses permit a student to differentiate their learning from the others in their research core, transforming them into members of their community with unique skills, knowledge, and abilities. Which courses will be foundational, exploratory, or integrative, and differentiating depends on their prior learning, their pathway toward degree completion, and, ultimately, what they want their degree to do for them as they head into their unscripted future!
W. John Koolage, Ph.D., Director, 101 Boone Hall, generaleducation@emich.edu
Curriculum Categories
For category information and course lists, please see the links below. A General Education Worksheet [PDF] is also available for download.
Use our ConverGE app to browse courses, make a plan, and find out what GE has to offer you!
Additional Information
- Upon a student’s initial enrollment at EMU, the University Advising and Career Development Center (200 McKenny Hall, 734.487.0400 has the authority to exercise professional judgment when accepting transfer courses for the General Education Program. Credits earned through the Advanced Placement (AP), College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and the military are treated as transfer credit, and the following departments evaluate the scores/credits:
- AP - Office of Records & Registration, 303 Pierce Hall, 734.487.4111
- CLEP - University Advising and Career Development Center, 200 McKenny Hall, 734.487.0400
- IB - Office of Records & Registration, 303 Pierce Hall, 734.487.4111
- Military credit - Veterans Services, 734.487.3119
- After their initial enrollment at EMU, students who wish to receive General Education approval to take, at another institution, courses not accepted as direct (course-to-course) equivalencies to the General Education Program, must receive prior approval from the General Education Director 734.487.0439.
- Upon receipt of an official DD214 (honorable discharge), the General Education Program recognizes a student’s military service by
- Only requiring completion of the Global Awareness (GEGA) or U.S. Diversity (GEUS) requirement, not both.
- Waiving the student’s Learning Beyond the Classroom requirement
- Waivers and substitutions for courses taken at EMU and not approved for the General Education Program can only be granted by the General Education Director (734.487.0439). They cannot be approved for General Education credit by academic departments.
General Education Transfer Guidelines
The Michigan Transfer Agreement (MTA) satisfies EMU’s General Education Core Requirements. Transfer students with an MTA endorsement on their transcript will only need to complete the General Education Application Requirements:
- Perspectives on a Diverse World - Demonstrate the application of learning in either global awareness or U.S. Diversity by completing one course, which may be transferred in as a part of the MTA
- Learning Beyond the Classroom - Demonstrate the application of classroom knowledge and obtain hands-on experience in settings outside of the classroom, which must be completed while at EMU
- Writing Intensive - Demonstrate the application of written communication skills within the major, which must be completed with an EMU-approved Writing Intensive course.
*MTA may be completed after initial enrollment at EMU
For transfer students without the MTA endorsement, transfer courses completed before admission to EMU will be applied to General Education Core requirements if they meet the spirit of the requirement.
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