Ohio State announces new general education requirements for incoming freshman. Credit: Lantern File Photo
For the first time in over 30 years, Ohio State’s General Education program has gone through a major makeover.
According to the Office of Undergraduate Education’s website, the new GE program reduces the number of required credit hours, establishes the same requirements for all majors and aims to better prepare students to enter the world after graduation with interdisciplinary courses.
According to Ohio State’s academic advising website, a GE curriculum is a set of courses outside a student’s major. The courses are designed to help a student develop the skills needed for a career in their field but also with skills that make them a well-rounded person.
Melissa Beers, senior director of the bookends program — a new part of the GE program that helps to explain the curriculum and the opportunities that come with it — said in an email that this change will create a very different experience for students.
“The new GE is the culmination of over six years of work and university-wide collaboration,” Beers said. “It represents a major shift in the way students interact with the GE.”
According to the website, new first-year students starting at Ohio State in autumn 2022 or later will complete the new program as part of their degree requirements. Transfer students coming this autumn can petition to participate in the previous GE program if they choose to do so.
The new program has a 32-39-hour credit requirement that consists of three parts: two hours of bookend courses that students will take at the beginning and end of their program, 22-25 hours of foundation courses in seven different disciplines and eight to 12 hours of theme courses, according to the website.
Under the new GE program, all undergraduate colleges will adhere to the same model requirements, according to the website. This makes it easier for students who change majors or add a second major to complete their GE requirements.
Compared to the previous GE program with required courses that were unrelated, the new GE is a multi-year program in which the required courses build upon one another, according to the website. The old program also required 44-69 credit hours, depending on the major.
According to the website, students will take four to six credit hours in the citizenship for a diverse and just world theme, and the remainder of the credit hours can be taken in a theme of their choosing. The additional themes students can choose from are lived environments; migration mobility, immobility; number, nature, mind; origins and evolution; sustainability; traditions; cultures and transformations and health and well-being.
Information on the content of the courses with these themes is not yet known.
Beers said the aim of the new GE program is to focus more on integrative learning.
“Rather than asking students to take many introductory courses, our new GE incorporates expert-led, in-depth courses designed around big questions or themes that examine complex issues from interdisciplinary perspectives,” Beers said.
Beers said she is excited to see how this change impacts students’ learning.
“It’s exciting to be able to offer students these new experiences, which are changing the face of General Education at Ohio State,” Beers said.
