The General Education Program (GenEd) seeks to provide students with an engaging, dynamic, and intellectually-rich experience that prepares them for life as thoughtful community members and professionals in an endlessly changing world. Built on a liberal arts foundation, as students move through the program, they will encounter innovative teaching methods, big ideas, interdisciplinary perspectives, and academic rigor, all designed to build critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and communication abilities that will carry students through and beyond their college experience. When woven into the curriculum with majors and minors, GenEd completes a transformative educational experience for students at Worcester State. GenEd couples a comprehensive liberal arts education with professional development so students are ready to navigate a complex world and flourish as individuals, professionals, and community members.
GenEd reflects values central to our WSU community and develops distinctive and highly sought-after skills in the following areas. These are what students will gain through the GenEd program:
1) Global Community & Perspectives
Students recognize themselves as active participants in a diverse and interconnected world, where their actions contribute to shaping inclusive, equitable, and more successful communities. Through the exploration of global perspectives, cultures, and experiences, students cultivate empathy, critical awareness, and an appreciation for diversity.
2) Critical Thinking
Students evaluate and construct arguments and narratives, ask questions, assess biases, and solve complex problems. They learn to understand different perspectives and then to locate, evaluate, and analyze qualitative and quantitative information in order to synthesize their own informed viewpoint.
3) Ethics & Society
Students develop reasoning skills to evaluate and address ethical and societal challenges. Through discussions on democracy, human rights, social justice, and exploration of community initiatives, they cultivate resilience, assess societal disparities, and embrace their role in fostering a just and responsible society.
4) Agency, Collaboration & Communication
Students develop agency, resilience, a positive sense-of-self, and a sense of belonging at the university. They collaborate with others, use communication skills respectfully and demonstrate strategies promoting the well-being and health of themselves and their community.
Requirements
The GenEd curriculum is required for all students, with the following exceptions and provisions for transfer students:
- MassTransfer: Students who have successfully completed the MassTransfer Gen Ed Foundation are considered to have fully satisfied all GenEd requirements.
- Course Equivalencies: Students transferring from other institutions without the MassTransfer Gen Ed Foundation will receive appropriate GenEd credit for equivalent courses.
Only 100- and 200-level courses can count towards GenEd requirements.
Students must complete the required credits for each of the ten categories. The credits listed in the table are minimums; a student may apply a course that earns more credit than required. (For example, a 3-credit Experiential Learning course would satisfy the 1-credit minimum for that category.) A single course cannot be designated in both Core Areas and Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
GenEd Core Areas: Courses applied toward Diversity, Civics, Mathematics, or Advanced Writing may also be applied toward a student’s first or second major or minor.
GenEd Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Courses applied to any category within Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives may also be applied to a student’s second major or minor. However, courses from any discipline within a student's first major (except for the Liberal Studies major) are ineligible to apply to requirements within Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives. For the Liberal Studies major, only specific courses used to fulfill Liberal Studies major requirements are ineligible to apply to requirements within Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
GenEd Special Designations: Team-taught and experiential learning courses can also fulfill eligible categories from Core Areas or Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives, with the exception of First Year Seminar (FYS). Special Designation courses may also be applied toward a student’s first or second major or minor.
| I. Core Areas | ||
| Requirement Category | Required Credits | Advising Rules & Prefix Constraints |
| Mathematics | 3 Credits | Any 100- or 200-level course with an MA prefix, strictly below MA 240. |
| Written Communication | 6 Credits | Must complete two courses: 1. EN-101 2. An Advanced Writing course (can be an approved EN course or developed within the major). |
| First Year Seminar (FYS) | 3 Credits | FYS cannot satisfy any other designation (cannot count as Team-Taught, Experiential, or Disciplinary). |
| Diversity | 3 Credits | Can be fulfilled by an approved course within or outside of the student's major. |
| Civics | 3 Credits | Can be fulfilled by an approved course within or outside of the student's major. |
| II. Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Note: A prefix may appear in only one category.) | ||
| Requirement Category | Required Credits | Advising Rules & Prefix Constraints |
| Behavioral & Social Sciences | 9 Credits | Maximum of 2 courses from the same prefix. |
| Creative Arts & Humanities | 9 Credits | Maximum of 2 courses from the same prefix. |
| Natural, Physical, & Computational Sciences | 6-7 Credits | Courses must be from different prefixes (maximum of 1 course per prefix). |
| III. Special Designations (Can count for Core or Disciplinary, but not both.) | ||
| Requirement Category | Required Credits | Advising Rules & Prefix Constraints |
| Team-Taught Courses | 3 Credits | Must be co-taught by faculty from at least 2 distinct fields of study. |
| Experiential Learning | 1+ Credits | Can be fulfilled by an approved course within or outside of the student's major. |
To find which Requirement Category a course prefix belongs to, refer to the table below. A course prefix consists of the letters preceding a course number (e.g., PS for psychology or CH for chemistry). Eligible courses for each category can also be identified within the Search for Classes card inside Self-Service. Academic and faculty advisors can help students navigate GenEd requirements in line with individual interests.
| Course Prefixes | ||
| Discipline | Prefix | Category |
| Arabic | AB | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Art | AR | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Asian Studies | AS | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Biology | BI | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Biotechnology | BT | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Business Administration | BA | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Chemistry | CH | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Communication | CM | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Computer Science | CS | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Criminal Justice | CJ | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Earth Science | GS | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Economics | EC | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Education | ED | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| English | EN | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Environmental Science | EV | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Ethnic Studies | ET | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| French | FR | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Geography | GE | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Global Studies | GL | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Health Education | HE | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| History | HI | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Human Rights and Social Justice | HR | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Interdisciplinary Studies | IS | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Journalism | JO | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Latin American and Latinx Studies | LA | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Liberal Studies | LS | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Mathematics | MA-240 & MA-260 | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences *MA courses below MA-240 may only be applied to the Core Area, Mathematics. |
| Music | MU | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Nursing | NU | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Occupational Studies | OT | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Philosophy | PH | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Physics | PY | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Political Science | PO | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Psychology | PS | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Public Health | HC | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Sociology | SO | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Spanish | SP | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences | CD | Natural, Physical, and Computational Sciences |
| Theatre | TH | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Urban Studies | UR | Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Visual and Performing Arts | VP | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| World Languages | WL | Creative Arts and Humanities |
| Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | WO | Creative Arts and Humanities |
The GenEd program is overseen by the Associate Provost in the Office of Academic Affairs, available at gened@worcester.edu.