New General Education Requirements Effective July 1

[jch]

Just received this email: 

New General Education Requirements Effective July 1
Changes offer greater flexibility and more elective options for undergraduate students.

Dear <student>,

In keeping with TESU's commitment to continuous improvement, the University will implement revisions to its General Education program, effective July 1, 2021.

General Education requirements in the University’s bachelor’s degree programs will be reduced from 60 to 45 credits. For associate degree-seeking students, the General Education requirements have been revised to align with peer community college degree structures. The revised requirements also better align with evolving state and national degree program conventions. Additionally, the changes are expected to increase transfer-in options for new students, create greater flexibility for enrolled students, reinforce quality assurance standards, and strengthen the overall academic integrity of our undergraduate programs.

The new General Education requirements include:

• A reduction in required credit hours from 60 to 45 in all bachelor’s degree programs.
  
• Elimination of General Education electives.
  
• An increase in free elective options for most degree programs and areas of study.
  
• A revised credit distribution for bachelor’s programs including a change in the “Knowledge of Human Cultures” category (from 9 to 15 credits) and a change in the “Scientific Knowledge” category (from 4-7 credits to 6).
  
• History courses will now satisfy both history and humanities requirements, though they will no longer satisfy social science requirements.
  
• In response to these changes, adjustments were made to most TESU undergraduate degree programs and area of study requirements and credit hours were redistributed.
  
• Greater transparency in TESU publications surrounding General Education requirements, credit distribution requirements, and definitions of each General Education category.
  

Please note, bachelor’s degree program completion will still require students to earn a minimum of 120 credit hours and associate degree program completion will still require 60 credit hours to complete.

Wondering how these changes will affect you? Enrolled students may choose to move into the new catalog year to take advantage of the revised General Education requirements or remain in their current degree plan. If you need guidance with this decision, or in planning your courses for the upcoming term, we can help. Make an advising appointment, email academicadvising@tesu.edu, contact the Student Success Center or call 609-777-5680 today.

Sincerely,
Filomela A. Marshall
Cynthia Baum, PhD
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Major changes coming in the 2021-2022 catalog! It doesn't appear to be live quite yet. We'll definitely be digging through it once it drops. Overall, this seems largely positive. Electives will be much more flexible. The increased knowledge of human cultures credit requirement could drive more students to pursue non-English languages. 
Of course, enrolled students can remain in their current catalog if desired.

[rachel83az]

This is very interesting! We'll have to see whether the new catalog or the old one is "better" for currently-enrolled students.

[gams007]

I would like to have more free elective options this is better I have a lot a free elective to be transferred soon.

[AllThose299s]

I'm closer to getting a BALS with a Natural Sciences & Mathematics concentration with the old catalog than getting a BALS with no concentration with the new catalog according to the "what-if" evaluation.

*Starts playing The Point of No Return over speakers*

[jch]

Thanks for the pointer. While the catalog pdf and degree outlines at tesu.edu are not updated at this time, the "what-if" tool in webadvisor is already using the 2021-2022 year.

[Cofffeee]

I hope there are no hidden surprises with providers of alternative credits which we dont know at the moment

[bjcheung77]

<SURPRISE!> Oh Well... I guess that was the big change over for this catalog year.
I highly doubt any "tuition/fees" are going to be changed, which frankly, is a good thing!

[AllThose299s]

Thanks for the pointer. While the catalog pdf and degree outlines at tesu.edu are not updated at this time, the "what-if" tool in webadvisor is already using the 2021-2022 year.

Which reminds me, the "what-if" tool links to courses as suggestions sometimes.... So here's the list of courses for July 2021 and after

https://www.tesu.edu/academics/courses/j...fter#World

[ss20ts]

Less general education requirements? That's a good thing! Free electives can be topics you find to be easy so you can breeze through those classes. It will be interesting to see when they release the official catalog what the breakdown of general education reqs now looks like. Hopefully this will be easier for folks.

[jch]

In my case, there does not seem to be any negative impact. All of my evaluations list the same number of remaining required credits under the old and new catalogs using the "what-if" tool. The free and general electives were simply combined, with some other things moved around as well.

I think that most people will experience no net change or a mild benefit from the new catalog. The new elective flexibility may be beneficial in some circumstances.