Academic Handbook

General Education

Current CLAS General Education Requirements

All students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences who wish to earn the BA, BS, BFA, BLS, or BM degree must complete the requirements of the CLAS General Education Program (GEP), below. 

The Tippie College of Business, The College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the College of Nursing (RN-BSN), and the College of Pharmacy have different General Education requirements than the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students planning to apply to programs within those colleges must take these differences into account and are urged to speak with an advisor before planning a course of studies. Please contact the Academic Advising Center. Students not yet admitted to The University of Iowa may contact Admissions.

In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, there are 9 required areas within the current General Education Program with 12 different categories of courses. (Please note that effective with Fall 2011 the requirements for new students entering CLAS in the Humanities and Distributed areas will be changing, see requirements below.)

To fulfill the area requirements, students may select courses from numerous disciplines, with all GE courses providing a foundation in critical thinking, reading, and writing. More advanced GE courses allow students to continue the pursuit of a wide-range of interests relating to or in addition to the major well into the senior year.

CLAS GE Areas and Requirements
  1. Rhetoric: a minimum of 4-8 semester hours.
  2. Foreign Language: Fourth-semester proficiency or equivalent.
  3. Interpretation of Literature: a minimum of 3 semester hours. English majors select an alternate course from the Humanities area.
  4. Historical Perspectives: a minimum of 3 semester hours.
  5. Humanities: a minimum of 3 semester hours.
  6. Natural Sciences: a minimum of 7 semester hours; must include one lab.
  7. Quantitative or Formal Reasoning: a minimum of 3 semester hours.
  8. Social Sciences: a minimum of 3 semester hours
  9. Distributed General Education: 6 semester hours with a minimum of 3 semester hours taken from two different categories listed below:

Note: The University accepts credit by examination for some areas of the GE Program, including AP, CLEP, and IB credit. Visit the following Admissions site for specific information. Transfer credit also may be used to fulfill some areas. Please consult with Admissions.

The CLAS General Education Program: Requirements Effective Fall 2010

The Rhetoric requirement within the CLAS General Education Program will change for all students entering the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences during the Fall 2010 semester and thereafter. 

As of Fall 2010, all new students will no longer be placed in a rhetoric course based on their ACT English sub scores. Instead, all new students must complete 10:003 Accelerated Rhetoric (4 semester hours) or its equivalent.

Continuing students will be expected to fulfill the Rhetoric requirement under the former GE requirements as noted on their degree audit.

All other GE requirements will remain as above until Summer 2011.

The CLAS General Education Program: Requirements Effective Summer 2011

Effective with Summer 2011, the Distributed (6 s.h.) and Humanities (3 s.h.) requirements within the CLAS General Education Program will dropped for new students.  Students entering the university in Summer 2011 or after must instead complete 3 s.h. in each of the following areas:  

Continuing students will be expected to fulfill the former Humanities and Distributed Area requirements as noted on their degree audit.

Information on which UI or transfer courses fulfill the above area requirements will be available by the end of Fall 2009.

Academic Policies Pertaining to Students

Students should be aware of all additional academic policies pertaining to the General Education Program.

Note: The University accepts credit by examination for some areas of the GE Program, including AP, CLEP, and IB credit. Transfer credit also may be used to fulfill some areas. Visit the following Admissions site for specific examination information.