General Education FAQs

Enrolled students may choose to move into the new catalog year to take advantage of these changes. To do so, and to learn more about how such a change may impact your degree completion, you can email the Office of Academic Advising at academicadvising@tesu.edu or schedule an advising appointment through our Online Scheduler.

This change does not impact current TESU students unless they choose to make a change. Current TESU students may choose to continue in their current degree program and catalog year, which will have no impact on the student’s current general education program. Otherwise, students may choose to move into the 2022 catalog year and follow the new general education program.

The new General Education Program is 45 credits for all bachelor’s programs, and students satisfy requirements for specific general education categories by taking courses in a variety of liberal arts disciplines. The Associate in Arts degree now requires 45 general education credits; the Associate in Science now requires 30 general education credits and the Applied Associate in Science now requires 21 general education credits.

If you are an enrolled student before July 1, 2021 and maintain your specific catalog year degree requirements, this change does not affect history courses you have already taken or transferred to TESU before July 1, 2021.  History courses that you have taken in the past fulfill requirements as they did when you took or transferred them. There will be no change for completed history courses on your Academic Evaluation as long as you maintain your enrollment for your catalog year requirements.

This change will affect history courses you take or transfer to TESU after July 1, 2021. As of July 1, 2021, any history course you take can be used to satisfy a requirement indicating that any history or humanities course is appropriate. This change will also affect your program if you change your catalog year to 2022 or after. As of the 2022 catalog year, all history courses will be used only as history and humanities. Students should speak with an academic advisor to consider all the possible changes before changing their program to the 2022 catalog year.

Your transfer courses will be used to fulfill the appropriate general education requirements. If the total completed course credits equal less than the total credits required for your degree program, your Academic Evaluation will show a supplemental section that indicates the additional general education courses you will have to take to meet the credit minimum for your degree program. Your Academic Advisor can provide information about this if it applies to your situation.

Students must follow all degree requirements under the catalog year for their program. Students may only have one catalog year requirement, so you cannot select one catalog year requirement for general education and another for area of study.

History courses now satisfy Humanities and History requirements instead of Social Science requirements. This means that when students take a history course, that course can be used to fulfill history as well as humanities requirements, as appropriate. This change is more consistent with the practices of the NJ county colleges.

Many areas of study have changed course and/or credit requirements. Some have increased courses/credit hours to allow for a greater depth of knowledge in the area of study. In general, courses/credits required in the areas of study and electives were increased to account for the removal of the general education electives required in most pre-2022 catalog year programs.

• 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 now satisfy both history and humanities requirements, and 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
• The Associate in Arts degree (AA) now requires 45 general education credits; the Associate in Science (AS) now requires 30 general education credits and the Applied Associate in Science (AAS) now requires 21 general education credits. These changes align with the NJ county colleges.

The new general education requirements take effect on July 1, 2021 (the 2022 catalog year). All applicants as of July 1, 2021 will be required to follow the new general education program. All current students may choose to move to the 2022 catalog year; if students choose to move into the 2022 catalog year, they will have to follow the new general education program.

In keeping with the University’s commitment to continuous improvement, the University conducted a review and assessment of the TESU General Education program. Results of this review indicated that revisions to the program would be beneficial to current and prospective students.