Undergraduate degrees at AUA consist of two components: the Major requirements and the General Education requirements. While the Major gives students depth, specialization, and career preparation, the General Education gives breadth and a foundation of general knowledge, perspectives, and skills for life. Both are carefully designed components to assure that graduates are ready for life-long learning, whether in the classroom, on the job, or on their own.
The General Education requirements consist of a minimum of 45 semester credits and have two components: Foundation Courses (18 credits/6 courses), and Breadth Requirements (a minimum of 27 credits/9 courses), in coherent clusters in each of three broad sectors (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Quantitative Science), selected from a range of electives outside the student’s major in consultation with the student’s academic adviser. Each of the three clusters should include at least one integrative or advanced course.
The “foundation” in “Foundation Courses” refers to the fact that these are university-wide requirements for all undergraduates – a learning experience shared as a common point of reference for all undergraduate students. It does not refer to the content of the courses per se, but to the function of these courses in the overall General Education Program at AUA.
Cohesive Clusters are groups of three or more related courses that are connected thematically by content and build on and/or complement each other (give depth or breadth) in one or more disciplinary ways of thinking.
Some Samples of Clusters:
The upper level courses in each cluster (in italics) build upon and integrate the knowledge and skills of the other courses, adding perspectives, depth and breadth of knowledge and disciplinary approaches, and subtlety and complexity of analysis.
For specific questions about General Education Requirements, contact Catherine Buon at [email protected].