General Education Requirements
(For students who entered the University prior to Fall 2008)
From the 2006-08 Undergraduate Catalog
Current Students, please note: As of Fall 2008, Global Justice (ID111) and Pluralism (ID222) will no longer be offered. Students who have not already fulfilled these requirements can substitute an additional Area 2 course for ID111 and an additional Area 3 course for ID222. Arcadia University aims to prepare its students for a world of increasing interdependence and complexity. General Education Requirements have a crucial role to play in the overall education offered at Arcadia University. It is essential to understand the inseparable connection binding us to other economies, states and value systems. Change is an inescapable fact that offers exciting possibilities and challenges. Scientific discoveries and technological advances have altered our perception of the universe, while economic development and revolutions in communications have brought cultures into new interactions, creating a new, global society. Inevitably, students will live and practice their professions within multiple contexts. Students will be familiarized not only with one academic discipline, but with many different areas of knowledge in the contemporary world of learning. To prepare to compete successfully in this new, interconnected world, Arcadia University's curriculum educates its students to become active, not passive learners and to:
- Develop critical and analytical reasoning skills.
- Communicate effectively.
- Learn to apply new technologies to the acquisition of knowledge.
- Become socially responsible citizens.
- Understand the many ways we receive, interpret, and filter information.
- Understand the diverse methodologies of the natural and social sciences, humanities and the arts.
- Develop skills of active learning, through research, performance and/or creation.
- Understand the past in order to comprehend the present and prepare for the future.
- Understand and appreciate cultural differences at home and abroad.
- Understand and appreciate their own culture, its sources and legacies, its past and present.
- Understand and appreciate both the necessity of ethics and the variety of ethical systems.
- Be prepared for a lifetime of independent learning.
In sum, Arcadia University will educate its students to see themselves within a global context and to be prepared to approach the world's diversity and complexity within a spirit of respect, cooperation and justice.
