University General Education Requirements (GERs)

General Education Requirements: Purpose

The General Education Requirements are an integral part of undergraduate education at Stanford. Their purpose is: 1) to introduce students to a broad range of fields and areas of study within the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, applied sciences, and technology; and 2) to help students prepare to become responsible members of society. Whereas the concentration of courses in the major is expected to provide depth, the General Education Requirements have the complementary purpose of providing breadth to a student's undergraduate program. The requirements are also intended to introduce students to the major social, historical, cultural, and intellectual forces that shape the contemporary world.

Fulfillment of the General Education Requirements in itself does not provide a student with an adequately broad education any more than acquiring the necessary number of units in the major qualifies the student as a specialist in the field. The major and the General Education Requirements are meant to serve as the nucleus around which the student is expected to build a coherent course of study by drawing on the options available among the required and elective courses.

Information regarding courses that have been certified to fulfill the General Education Requirements, and regarding a student's status in meeting these requirements, is available at the Office of the University Registrar. Course planning and advising questions related to the General Education Requirements should be directed to Undergraduate Advising and Research.

It is the responsibility of each student to ensure that he or she has fulfilled the requirements by checking in Axess within the Undergraduate Progress function or by checking with the Office of the University Registrar. This should be done at least two quarters before graduation.

Students should be very careful to note which set of General Education Requirements apply to them. The date of matriculation at Stanford determines which requirements apply to an individual student.

During Autumn Quarter 2004-05, the Academic Senate approved modifications to undergraduate General Education Requirements that become effective Autumn Quarter 2005-06 for all matriculated undergraduates who entered Stanford in Autumn Quarter 1996 and thereafter. The purpose of these modifications was 1) to give students a fuller and more articulate understanding of the purposes of the requirements and of a liberal arts education that these requirements embody; 2) to make a place in the curriculum for ethical reasoning to help make students aware of how pervasive ethical reasoning and value judgments are throughout the curriculum; and 3) to provide some greater freedom of choice by reducing the GERs by one course.