General Education Requirements

for the University of Virginia College of Arts & Sciences

The College Curriculum

What would a curriculum look like if it was designed with no restraints? On what principles should a general education rely?

The College Curriculum builds on the legacy of the Jefferson model by laying a foundation for the development of an engaged democratic citizenry. Our students grapple with fundamental questions at the heart of the liberal arts and sciences, equip themselves with essential literacies for robust participation across global communities, and explore the breadth and depth of disciplinary thinking throughout the College.

Redesigned for the twenty-first century, the College Curriculum prepares our students for meaningful vocation and purposeful engagement in an ever changing and increasingly cosmopolitan world.

EGMT 1520 - Empirical and Scientific Engagement

A general education should help you make sense of the world and cosmos by analyzing observable evidence and using formal and quantitative reasoning. Both within and beyond the university, you will encounter claims about the natural and social worlds and be confronted with situations that require you to evaluate and make decisions based on evidence. Empirical methods are a crucial component to addressing and answering such a broad range of essential questions. 

EGMT 1510 - Engaging Aesthetics

A general education should help you explore our world through the lens of human creativity in its many forms. In their shaping of materials, language, space, and sound, artists, architects, writers, and composers reinterpret the world, showing us vital ways of thinking about our present, our past, and the natural world. We will explore how their work provokes our most visceral emotional responses and invites engaged intellectual reflection and interpretation.

EGMT 1540 - Ethical Engagements

A general education should help you reflect upon and deliberate about your lives as ethical agents. Throughout your life, you will encounter questions of right and wrong, liberty and obligation, justice and mercy; you will be responsible for whatever conception of the “good” you use to structure and orient your lives.  We will consider how to understand ethical reflection and practice while acknowledging that some differences on ethical questions are irreconcilable.

Rhetoric for the 21st Century

The Rhetoric for the 21st Century literacy provides experience with rhetorical arts learned and practiced over the course of one’s life. These include written, oral, and digital forms of expression used by highly literate members of our society. Both the First Writing and Second Writing requirements comprise the Rhetoric for the 21st Century component of the new curriculum.

Pages