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Overview

USF's General Education curriculum comprises 36 hours divided into 15 hours from a specific list of state-approved courses and 21 hours of USF-chosen courses approved by the Florida Board of Governors. The USF-chosen courses all have enhancements added to them and also incorporate Communication, Critical/Analytical Thinking, and Problem Solving. 

All 36 credits must be taken from five (5) disciplines: 

• Communication
• Humanities
• Mathematics
• Natural Science
• Social Science

The table below provides the exact breakdown of the 36 required credits. 

Discipline	State Core Credits	USF Gen Ed Credits	Total Credits
Communication	3	3	6
Humanities	3	3	6
Mathematics	3	3	6
Natural Science	3	3	6
Social Science	3	3	6
**Choose 2 courses from any gen ed discipline above	0	6	6
	15	21	36

General Education Discipline Areas 

All general education courses must come from the five state-approved discipline areas. The state-approved descriptions for each area are provided below and come from Florida Statute 1007.25(d). After the definition we provide the courses that will count for the State Core requirement (as defined in Florida Board Governors Regulation 8.005) and the USF Gen Ed requirement (as approved by the USF General Education Council). 

• Communication: "Communication courses must afford students the ability to communicate effectively, including the ability to write clearly and engage in public speaking." 
• Humanities: "Humanities courses must afford students the ability to think critically through the mastering of subjects concerned with human culture, especially literature, history, art, music, and philosophy, and must include selections from the Western canon."
• Mathematics: "Mathematics courses must afford students a mastery of foundational mathematical and computation models and methods by applying such models and methods in problem solving." 
• Natural Science: "Natural science courses must afford students the ability to critically examine and evaluate the principles of the scientific method, model construction, and use the scientific method to explain natural experience and phenomena." 
• Social Science: "Social science courses must afford students an understanding of the basic social and behavioral science concepts and principles used in the analysis of behavior and past and present social, political, and economic issues."

USF's General Education

As required by Florida Statute 1007.55(1), all general education courses must be categorized into one the main discipline areas described above. In addition, the University of South Florida faculty choose one of the enhancements below to add to their USF General Education course. There are no requirements around how many of these enhancements students need to take.

The list of enhancements are below:
 
Creative Thinking - Students will summarize or interpret existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways. 
Information & Data Literacy - Students will identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share information for the problems at hand. 
Cultural Competence - Students will demonstrate an understanding of the range of human experiences. 
Ethical Reasoning & Civic Engagement - Students will participate in activities of personal and public concern while recognizing ethical issues and assessing their own ethical values. 
Experiential Learning - Students will summarize connections among experiences outside of the formal classroom. 
Quantitative Reasoning - Students will show an understanding of many quantitative skills, including interpreting evidence, modeling complex systems, and drawing valid inferences from data. 

Additionally, all Enhanced General Education courses include Communication, Critical/Analytica Thinking and Problem Solving learning outcomes: 

Communication - Students will produce well-organized, well-developed communications that reflect appropriate use of language to achieve a specific purpose and address specific audiences. 
Critical and Analytical Thinking - Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating any opinions or conclusions. 
Problem Solving - Students will design, evaluate, and implement a strategy to answer open-ended questions or achieve desired goals.