REPORTS

Certification of Courses for the new GE Curriculum (2001-02)

On December 5, 2001, the College faculty voted in favor of a new general education (GE) curriculum centered on the following three areas of knowledge, Foundations of the Arts and Humanities, Foundations of Society and Culture, and Foundations of Scientific Inquiry. The GE Governance Committee, in collaboration with the College FEC and the Undergraduate Council, undertook a review and re-certification of offered and newly proposed GE courses. In order to assist the departments in this certification process, the GE Governance Committee established three ad hoc workgroups composed of faculty representatives from departments associated with the new GE curriculum’s three foundation areas of knowledge. Below are links to the reports submitted to the UCLA Undergraduate Council on the certification of courses for the new general education curriculum in the College of Letters and Science.

» Transmittal Letter from the FEC and the GE Governance Committee
» Report from the Foundations of the Arts and Humanities
» Report from the Foundations of Society and Culture
» Report from the Foundations of Scientific Inquiry
» General Education at UCLA: A Proposal for Change
» Final Report to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Towards New Communities of Learning
» Campus-wide GE Requirements Chart
» Creating New Communities of Learning at UCLA: An Institutional Transformation in Progress, 1993-2002
» List of Conference Presentations and Published Articles Regarding General Education and the Freshman Cluster Program
» College of Letters and Science General Education (GE) Modifications (2001)

REVIEWS

Like all academic programs at UCLA, the General Education curriculum is reviewed by the Academic Senate’s Program Review Process.  From 2002-2019, each General Education Foundation Area and the Cluster Program were reviewed under two separate 8-year review cycles.

Each review spanned two years.  The first year of the process began with a self-review completed by an ad hoc faculty committee jointly appointed by the General Education Governance Committee (GEGC) and the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. The ad hoc committees focused on several issues, including the overall pedagogical aims of the foundation area, as well as the quality of the courses offered. At the end of the first year, the ad hoc committees issued a Self-Review Report (linked below), which were reviewed and endorsed by the GEGC and submitted to Undergraduate Council.

During the second year, the reports were used by the Academic Senate review team, composed of both internal and external reviewers, to guide their review of the curriculum. The review team conducted a site visit and issued an Academic Senate Program Review report (linked below) and included recognition of the program’s strengths and recommendations for improvement.

The individual reviews suggested a great deal of overlap between the Foundation Areas and the Cluster Program. Therefore, in order to better understand the big picture of how the University ensures quality in General Education, the four reviews will be combined into one comprehensive review beginning in 2020-21*.

The General Education review schedule and links to the report are below:

Year Scientific Inquiry Society and Culture Arts and Humanities Cluster Program
2002-03       Self-Review
2003-04       Senate Review
2004-05        
2005-06 Self-Review      
2006-07 Senate Review      
2007-08 Self-Review    
2008-09   Senate Review    
2009-10 Self-Review
2010-11 Senate Review Self-Review
2011-12 Senate Review
2012-13
2013-14 Self-Review
2014-15 Senate Review
2015-16 Self-Review
2016-17 Senate Review
2017-18 Self-Review
2018-19 Senate Review
2019-20
2020-21 Self-Review
2022-23 Senate Review

*For more background on the justification for a consolidated review, please see the full request from Vice Provost Patricia Turner.