General Education Home

Welcome to the online home for General Education at the University of Delaware. This site is the product of a collaboration between the General Education Committee of the University of Delaware’s Faculty Senate and the Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning (CTAL).

Definition

At the University of Delaware, our General Education requirements set students along the path of possessing a complete set of characteristics of one who is both broadly and deeply educated. They are an essential component of the cultivation of learning, the development of knowledge, and the fostering of a free exchange of ideas that are hallmarks of the university’s educational mission. Although some courses or types of courses are required, the purposes and objectives of General Education are not limited to the curricular requirements and scaffolded learning experience students undertake on their way to earning a bachelor’s degree; these are values incorporated into all undergraduate courses at UD.

Purposes and Objectives of General Education

Detailed descriptions of the four Purposes and five Objectives of General Education at UD listed below can be found here.

Purposes

The University of Delaware’s General Education program seeks to prepare students who are:

  • Engaged citizens, involved in the world around them, and who understand the major challenges and debates of the day
  • Aware of their intellectual strengths and interests and of their ethical values and commitments
  • Capable of interpreting the arts and culture of contemporary and past societies
  • Equipped with the essential skills necessary to thrive in a rapidly evolving world including the ability to be a lifelong learner, creator, and innovator.

Objectives

General education at the University of Delaware prepares students who are able to

  1. Read critically, analyze arguments and information, and engage in constructive ideation
  2. Communicate effectively in writing, orally, and through creative expression
  3. Work collaboratively and independently within and across a variety of cultural contexts and a spectrum of differences
  4. Critically evaluate the ethical implications of what they say and do
  5. Reason quantitatively, computationally, and scientifically
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