A Revised Gen Ed Debuts | Harvard Magazine

After a years-long redesign, a reformed version of the College’s program in General Education launches this fall, inform Nina Pasquini, Staff Writer at The Harvard Crimson.

Professors Douglas Melton and Michael Sandel prepare to launch their new Gen Ed course, open to students from across the University, at Klarman Hall.
Photo: Lee Hopkins

The new Gen Ed intends to focus on “urgent problems and pressing questions”—to equip students for life outside of the classroom more explicitly than departmental classes might. The new program features a total of eight requirements:

• one departmental course from each of the three Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) divisions: arts and humanities; social sciences; science and engineering;
• one quantitative reasoning with data requirement; and
• one Gen Ed course—all of them either new or refreshed—from each of four different categories: Aesthetics & Culture; Ethics & Civics; Histories, Societies, Individuals; and Science & Technology in Society.

The latter courses significantly distinguish the new Gen Ed from its predecessor: they are intended to have a unique pedagogy—prioritizing experiential, hands-on learning with real-world applications—and the content is intended to be interdisciplinary and case-study-based.  

During the 2019-2020 academic year, about six dozen new Gen Ed courses will roll out...

With today’s official start of the semester, the fall’s Gen Ed courses will also debut, and the years and months of preparation—both for the relaunched program and for these new classes—will finally transform into teaching and learning.
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Source: Harvard Magazine