General Education at Kingsborough Community College

Kingsborough's mission statement includes two goals which are directly addressed through our General Education program:

1. to offer an excellent general education to all degree students

2. to develop students' competence in written and oral communication, quantitative skills, critical thinking, research, and technological literacy

The first goal has been operationalized by the College Assessment Committee in these outcome statements: 

• Students will choose from a wide range of liberal arts and sciences courses in order to develop the knowledge, skills, and appreciation of disciplines beyond their majors
• Students will increase their knowledge of self and of their physical, social, and cultural environment

The second goal has been operationalized in these outcomes:

• Students will demonstrate mastery of quantitative skills
• Students will demonstrate their problem solving skills through their ability to analyze, compare, and evaluate ideas
• Students will demonstrate effective oral and written communication
• Students will use technology to acquire and manage knowledge

Additionally, in Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education: Eligibility Requirements and Standards for Accreditation, the Middle States Commission of Higher Education states that a general education curriculum should be a "purposeful, coherent, engaging and rigorous"[1] program of study, not simply a collection of courses, and be "clearly and accurately described in official publications of the institution."[2] 

The Faculty Committee on General Education, which was formed in 2005 in response to CUNY's renewed emphasis on undergraduate education, has had these goals, outcomes, and standards in mind as it studied our program over the past year. The Committee's first act was to develop a rationale for our program, which consists of college and distribution requirements of all degree programs.  The rationale is presented on this site as a statement of principles and discussion of the purpose and value of each of the disciplines in the college and distribution requirements.