Section 31.004 General Education

Objectives

An education for life requires the ability to read, write, speak, reason, compute, and listen effectively. This is true for all students, whether they are in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, or any other Faculty in the University. The General Education requirement is meant to provide breadth to the student’s program of study.

Regulations

A candidate for graduation must satisfy the Arts and Science General Education requirement by successfully completing a minimum of six credits from course offerings outside the candidate’s disciplinary sector.

The disciplinary sectors comprising the Faculty of Arts and Science are Humanities, Social Science, and Science. The academic units within each sector are as follows:

Humanities

• Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics

• Department of Communication Studies

• Department of English

• Programmes d'études françaises

• Department of History

• School of Irish Studies

• Department of Journalism

• Liberal Arts College

• Department of Philosophy

• Department of Theological Studies

Social Science

• Department of Applied Human Sciences

• Department of Economics

• Department of Education

• Department of Geography, Planning and Environment

• Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability

• Department of Political Science

• Department of Religions and Cultures

• School of Community and Public Affairs

• Simone de Beauvoir Institute and Women’s Studies

• Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Science

• Department of Biology

• Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology

• Department of Mathematics and Statistics

• Department of Physics

• Department of Psychology

• Science College

Notes

Courses falling under the administrative umbrella of Interdisciplinary Studies are considered for General Education requirement purposes to fall within the Social Sciences.

Students may also count courses offered by the John Molson School of Business, the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Faculty of Fine Arts toward their General Education requirement.

Students in a 90-credit degree who successfully complete an honours program or a specialization program from the Science disciplinary sector and who complete the Minor in Multidisciplinary Studies in Science offered by the Science College are considered to have met the General Education requirement.

Students enrolled in two areas of concentration which are both within the same disciplinary sector are required to take six credits outside of the sector. For example, students enrolled in a BA Major in History and a BA Major in Theological Studies, both of which fall within the Humanities, must fulfill the requirement by successfully completing either six credits from the Social Science or Science sector, or three credits from the Social Science sector and three credits from the Science sector, or six credits from outside the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Students enrolled in two areas of concentration drawn from different disciplinary sectors will be considered as having satisfied the General Education requirement. For example, students enrolled in a BA Major in Sociology (Social Science) and a BA Major in English Literature (Humanities) will be considered as having satisfied the General Education requirement.

Students enrolled in an undergraduate certificate program are exempt from the General Education requirement as are students pursuing a second or subsequent undergraduate degree.

English as a Second Language (ESL) Courses or introductory English language courses are not considered as substitutions for this requirement.