Instructional Leadership, emphasis: K-12 School Leadership (MEd)

NAU General Education programs


NAU is launching a new General Education program

Launching fall 2025, NAU’s new General Education program supports the university’s strategic goals, reflects our diverse student body, and equips graduates for 21st-century success.

What is General Education?

  • It is a guided yet flexible set of courses covering these areas: Foundational Math and English, Arts and Humanities, Science, Social and Political Worlds, and Peoples Within and Beyond the United States.
  • Students create their own GE portfolio by selecting courses from each area that will provide context for their chosen major, support personal growth, and prepare them for future careers.
  • This is a program that all undergraduate students complete in addition to courses for their major.
  • Most universities across the country have GE programs.

General Education and your major

Courses in your GE portfolio make up more than 25% of the 120 credits required for most undergraduate degrees. The other 75% will be credits you complete in your major.

This is a Venn Diagram with two overlapping circles to represent how your General Education is integrated with your major rather than a separate part of your undergraduate experience. One circle represents your General Education portfolio, which is a 34-35 credit program that all undergraduate students complete. Courses in this area make up more than 25% of the 120 total credits required for most undergraduate degrees. The other circle represents courses for your major that essentially comprise the other 75% of your overall credit requirements that you complete in your major. Within the overlapping area of the two circles is an image of a student in a cap and gown representing you and your undergraduate career.

What is the value of General Education?

Student holding a highlighter and smiling at something in the distance

Foundational knowledge

A group of students working on a computer in the library

Transferable skills

Students making observations at the Grand Canyon

Discover

Studenta nd professor looking at historical documents

Network

NAU library covered in snow during the winter season

Tips on how to choose your General Education courses

  • Be proactive in searching for courses that meaningfully connect to your major, help you grow personally, or help you develop marketable skill sets and knowledge to kickstart a career.
  • Talk to professors in your major about GE courses that will complement/contextualize your major.
  • Select courses that will help you explore an interest or skill set that will help you identify a major.
  • Think about courses that will offer you experiences and exposure to knowledge you do not already have. Explore new parts of the world and cultures you know nothing about.
  • Select courses that will offer you skill sets you wish to develop such as writing, public speaking, teamwork, computer programming, etc.
  • Look for courses that will help you understand your social context: Who are the people around you? What are their life experiences?  What is important to them?
  • Think about how you can use your GE courses to create a customized experience of your own creation.
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