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UNDERGRADUATE GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS Navigation

Overview

UH Manoa Core Requirements

Foundations Requirements

Diversification Requirements

UH Manoa Graduation Requirements

Focus Requirements

Hawaiian or Second Language (HSL)

Undergraduate Advising Offices

UH Manoa Core Requirements

1. Foundations Requirement: 12 credits

The Foundations requirements are intended to give students skills and perspectives that are fundamental to undertaking higher education. Students complete the Foundations requirements during their first year at UH Manoa. Courses taken to fulfill the Foundations requirements may not be used to fulfill Diversification or Focus requirements.

  • 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. Courses also 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.

FW Courses

  • ENG 100, 100A Composition I
  • ENG 190 Composition for Transfer Students
  • ELI 100 Expository Writing: A Guided Approach

To enroll in a course that meets the Written Communication requirement, students must first determine their course eligibility by visiting www.mwp.hawaii.edu. Non-native speakers of English should visit www.hawaii.edu/eli or contact the English Language Institute at (808) 956-8610, uhmeli@hawaii.edu.

Students can satisfy the FW requirement by earning specified Advanced Placement examination scores. (See www.manoa.hawaii.edu/admissions/undergrad/pdf/AP.pdf for details.) Students may also be able to satisfy this requirement through submission of a collection of writing. For eligibility criteria and other information, visit www.mwp.hawaii.edu or contact the General Education Office at (808) 956-6660, gened@hawaii.edu.

  • 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 do 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.

FS Courses

  • 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 112* Math for Elementary Teachers II
  • MATH 140** Precalculus
  • MATH 161 Precalculus and Elements of Calculus for Economics and the Social Sciences
  • 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, 110A Introduction to Deductive Logic
  • PHIL 111 Introduction to Inductive Logic

* Has a prerequisite.
** Requires placement by Math Department's Precalculus Assessment; visit 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 from diverse cultures. At least one component of each of these courses will involve the indigenous cultures of Hawai'i, the Pacific, or Asia.

FG Courses

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

Group A (courses marked FGA in this Catalog and online; courses cover the time period prehistory to 1500)

  • ANTH 151, 151A 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 (FGB; courses cover the time period 1500 to modern times)

  • AMST 150 America and the World
  • ANTH 152, 152A Culture and Humanity
  • ART 176 Survey of Global Art II
  • FSHN 141 Culture and Cuisine: The Global Diversity of Food
  • GEOG 102 World Regional Geography
  • HIST 152 World History since 1500
  • HIST 155 Issues in World History
  • HIST 162A World Cultures in Perspective
  • TIM 102 Food and World Cultures
  • WS 176 History of Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Global Perspective, 1500 CE to the Present

Group C (FGC; courses cover the time period prehistory to modern times)

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

For Non-UH System Transfer Students Only

Students who transfer from a non-UH System school 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.

 

General Education Goals

UH Manoa provides an environment in which both faculty and students can discover, examine, preserve, and transmit the knowledge, wisdom, and values that will enrich present and future generations. UH Manoa's special and global distinction is found in its Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific orientation. The academic program structure and research enterprise take special advantage of Hawai'i's unique environment.

General Education at UH Manoa involves a flexible and diverse multi-disciplinary curriculum. The General Education requirements foster a deeper appreciation of the complexities and potentialities of the human experience from the perspectives of the arts, humanities, and the natural and social sciences. They also encourage an understanding of imagination and creativity through the application of abstract and intuitive thinking. Upon graduation, students will be able to:

  • appreciate the values and ideas of cultures as they have evolved and as they find expression in literature, history, philosophy, religion, art, and music;
  • reason and analyze effectively;
  • communicate clearly and effectively in Standard English;
  • know the aims and methods of science;
  • recognize the ways in which individuals and social institutions organize and shape behavior.

 

       

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Please note: This Catalog was prepared to provide information and does not constitute a contract. The University reserves the right to change or delete, supplement or otherwise amend at any time and without prior notice the information, requirements and policies contained in this Catalog.

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