GENERAL EDUCATION CORE AND GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS Navigation

Overview

New Students: Academic Planning

General Education

UH Manoa Core Requirements

Foundations Requirements

Diversification Requirements

Focus Requirements

Hawaiian or Second Language (HSL)

Exemption from a Focus Requirement

UH Manoa Core Requirements

Foundations Requirement: 12 credits

Foundations courses are intended to give students skills and perspectives that are fundamental to undertaking higher education. Foundations courses may be offered as components of learning communities that also include courses fulfilling major or Diversification requirements. Students complete the Foundations requirements during their first year at UH Manoa (or before completing 25 credits).

Courses taken to fulfill the Foundations requirement may not be used to fulfill Diversification or Focus requirements. Only courses taken after they have an official Foundations designation (FW, FS, or FG) will count as meeting the Foundations requirement.

Written Communication (FW): 3 credits

Written Communication courses introduce students to the rhetorical, conceptual, and stylistic demands of writing at the college level; courses give instruction in composing processes, search strategies, and composing from sources. The courses provide students with experiences in the library and on the internet and enhance their skills in accessing and using various types of primary and secondary materials.

To enroll in a course that meets the Written Communication requirement, students must first meet the prerequisites. Details are provided in the flyer mailed to new students with their acceptance materials. Contact the Manoa Writing Program for information ((808) 956-6660; www.mwp.hawaii.edu). Non-native speakers of English should contact the English Language Institute ((808) 956-8610; www.hawaii.edu/eli).

Some students may satisfy this requirement through submission of a collection of writing. Only first-year students are eligible. Other restrictions also apply. For information, contact the Manoa Writing Program ((808) 956-6660; www.mwp.hawaii.edu)

Courses Approved to Date

• ENG 100 Composition I
• ENG 100A Composition I
• ENG 101/101L Composition I/Composition I Lab
• ELI 100 Expository Writing: A Guided Approach

Symbolic Reasoning (FS): 3 credits

Symbolic Reasoning courses expose students to the beauty and power of formal systems, as well as to their clarity and precision; courses will not focus solely on computational skills. Students learn the concept of proof as a chain of inferences. They learn to apply formal rules or algorithms; engage in hypothetical reasoning; and traverse a bridge between theory and practice. In addition, students develop the ability to use appropriate symbolic techniques in the context of problem solving and to present and critically evaluate evidence.

To enroll in some of the courses that meet the Symbolic Reasoning requirement, students must first take the Math Department’s Assessment Exam. Some of the courses have prerequisites; see course descriptions for details.

Courses Approved to Date

• BUS 250 Applied Math in Business
• ICS 141 Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science I
• ICS 241 Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science II
• MATH 100 Survey of Mathematics
• MATH 100A Survey of Mathematics
• MATH 112 Math for Elementary Teachers II
• MATH 140* Precalculus
• MATH 203* Calculus for Business and Social Sciences
• MATH 215* Applied Calculus I
• MATH 241* Calculus I
• MATH 251A* Accelerated Calculus I
• NREM 203 Applied Calculus for Management, Life Sciences, and Human Resources
• PHIL 110 Introduction to Deductive Logic
• PHIL 110A Introduction to Deductive Logic
• PHIL 111 Introduction to Inductive Logic

* Math Department's Precalculus Assessment required: www.math.hawaii.edu/

Global and Multicultural Perspectives (FG): 2 courses, 6 credits

Global and Multicultural Perspectives courses provide thematic treatments of global processes and cross-cultural interactions from a variety of perspectives. Students will gain a sense of human development from prehistory to modern times through consideration of narratives and artifacts of and from diverse cultures. At least one component of each of these courses will involve the indigenous cultures of Hawai‘i, the Pacific, or Asia.

Courses Approved to Date

To satisfy this requirement students must take six credits; the six credits must come from two different groups.

Group A

• ANTH 151 Emerging Humanity
• ART 175 Survey of Global Art I
• HIST 151 World History to 1500
• HIST 161A World Cultures in Perspective
• WS 175 History of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Global Perspectives to 1500 CE

Group B

• AMST 150 America and the World
• ANTH 152 Culture and Humanity
• ART 176 Survey of Global Art II
• GEOG 102 World Regional Geography
• HIST 152 World History since 1500
• HIST 155 Issues in World History
• HIST 162A World Cultures in Perspective
• WS 176 History of Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Global Perspective, 1500 CE to the Present

Group C

• BOT 105 Ethnobotany
• GEOG 151 Geography and Contemporary Society
• LLL 150 Literature and Social Change
• MUS 107 Music in World Cultures
• REL 150 Introduction to the World’s Major Religions

For non-UH transfers only

External transfer students who come in with one or more western civilization courses will be required to take only three credits of Global and Multicultural Perspectives. If the course or courses that they have taken are time-period specific, the credits that they take at UH Manoa must cover a different time period.