General Education
The General Education Rationale Statement
General education is the curricular foundation at Northwest Missouri State University. It encourages students to acquire and use the intellectual tools, knowledge, and creative capabilities necessary to study the world as it is, as it has been understood, and as it might be imagined. It also furnishes them with skills that enable them to deepen their understanding and to communicate it to others. Through general education, Northwest equips students for success in their specialized areas of study and for fulfilled lives as educated persons, as active citizens, and as effective contributors to their own prosperity and to the general welfare.
Knowledge is ever changing; therefore general education must alert students to the connections and the potential for interaction among all branches of knowing, ordering, and imagining. General education should inform students that the world is understood in different ways and should provide them with the means to come to terms, intelligently and humanely, with diversity. As a result of their general education, students should acquire appropriate investigative, interpretative, and communicative competencies.
The General Education Portion of Degree Requirements
In order to complete the bachelor’s degree, students must take the general education requirements for their specific degree, plus the institutional requirements for their specific degree, plus major and/or minor requirements as specified by the department, plus electives as needed to total a minimum of 124 semester hours.
It is important for students to work closely with their academic advisors when selecting courses, as not all courses fulfill requirements for all degrees. Students who change their majors, choose double majors or additional certification, or who do not choose courses carefully may need more than 124 semester hours to complete a degree program.