General Education Requirements for Degrees
We are committed to ensuring that graduates receive a comprehensive liberal arts education, including acquisition of essential skills and understanding of a range of intellectual perspectives. This foundation should help graduates build fulfilling and successful lives as individuals, workers, citizens, and lifelong learners. Our goal is that Bellevue College graduates will achieve competence in the general education outcome areas identified below.
In this page:
- General Education Competency Requirement
- Explanation of Requirements
- "Statement of Liberal Learning"
General Education Competency Requirements for Degrees
| Description of General Education Competencies | Description of Degree Requirements | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outcome Cluster | Outcome Area* | For all DTA/ MRP Degrees | AAS-T and AA | AS - Tracks I, II | AAGS | ||||
| Effective Date | Winter 2005 | Fall 2005 ** | Fall 2005 | Summer 2006 | |||||
| (A) Reasoning | One from each area (3) | One from each area (3) | Critical Thinking & Quantitative/ Logical (2) | Critical Thinking & Quantitative/ Logical (2) |
|||||
| (B) Communication
|
Writing plus Any Two Areas (3) | Writing plus Any Two Areas (3) | Writing only (1) | Any One Area (1) |
|||||
| (C) Responsibility | Any Two Areas (2) *** | Any one area (1) | None | None | |||||
| (D) Cultural Traditions | Cultural Diversity plus Any One Area (2) | Cultural Diversity plus Any One Area (2) | Cultural Diversity only (1) | Cultural Diversity only (1) | |||||
| (E) Science & Environment | Any two Areas (2) | Any One Area (1) | Nature of Science and Science and the Natural World (2) | Any One Area (1) | |||||
| Competency Total | 18 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 5 | ||||
* A requirement is met in an outcome area by taking one course rated 3 or two courses rated 2 in that area. See Course Catalog for ratings.
** General Education requirements for Health Sciences AA degrees and certificates will be completed for 2008 implementation.
*** The first “responsibility” outcome area will be a requirement for the AAS-DTA and AB-DTA in 2009 and the second in 2010.
Explanation of Requirements
We subscribe to the educational purposes and values articulated in the AAC&U’s “Statement on Liberal Learning” and are committed to providing students a comprehensive learning experience which addresses critical dimensions of student personal, professional, and intellectual growth. Accordingly, we have developed a general education program that incorporates the essential elements of liberal learning.
Our General Education program is designed to address areas and specific requirements which ensure that students’ learning experiences prepare them to build fulfilling and successful lives as individuals, workers, citizens, and life-long learners. To ensure ease of student transfer, we have carefully formulated its General Education requirements to correspond with lower division and general requirements at other community colleges and at typical baccalaureate institutions.
In addition to completing the distribution requirements for specific degrees, students must take courses that address the five categories of general education. Opportunities to develop these skills are incorporated throughout the college curriculum, with different courses supporting different general education goals.
Students in professional/technical Associate of Arts degree programs will fulfill the college’s general education requirements by completing the courses required for the particular program. Other degrees offered at BC are designed to provide appropriate levels of student preparation and learning in the general education categories identified in the chart below.
Students meet General Education Requirements by taking one course rated 3 or two courses rated 2.
“Statement on Liberal Learning”
From the Association of American Colleges & Universities
A truly liberal education is one that prepares us to live responsible, productive, and creative lives in a dramatically changing world. It is an education that fosters a well-grounded intellectual resilience, a disposition toward lifelong learning, and an acceptance of responsibility for the ethical consequences of our ideas and actions. Liberal Education requires that we understand the foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture, and society; that we master core skills of perception, analysis, and expression; that we cultivate a respect for truth; that we recognize the importance of historical and cultural context; and that we explore connections among formal learning, citizenship, and service to our communities.