General Education is an important and required component of every Michigan Tech degree. Accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission requires that general education “imparts broad knowledge and intellectual concepts to students and develop skills and attitudes that the institution believes every college-educated person should possess.” (Accreditation Criterion 3b2)
At Michigan Tech, the General Education program enables all students, regardless of major, to develop an understanding of science and the social and cultural contexts of our contemporary world. (University Strategic Goal 2)
Undergraduate Student-Learning Goals
The General Education program also endeavors to help students achieve many of the eight Undergraduate Student-Learning Goals;
Goal 2 Knowledge of the physical and natural world
Goal 3 Global literacy
Goal 4 Critical and creative thinking
Goal 5 Communication
Goal 6 Information literacy
Goal 8 Social responsibility and ethical reasoning
Each course in the General Education program has selected one of these goals and endeavors to improve student achievement of these goals.
Goal 1 Disciplinary Knowledge and Goal 7 Technology will be achieved in the degree programs. The General Education program will provide initial instruction and assessment of Goal 6 Information Literacy; degree programs will continue to engage students in developing information literacy appropriate for their discipline.
General Education Assessment
Assessment of these learning goals is grounded in the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ LEAP (Liberal Education and America's Promise) initiative, which offers a set of VALUE rubrics to assist universities with assessment of learning outcomes for general education. Michigan Tech is a member of the LEAP campus action network.
For more information about the General Education program and assessment, please see General Education and Assessment.