General Education Requirements

Students are required to complete both General Education and Campus Requirements.

GE Catalog Years 2025-Present. Refer to the Catalog Archives for prior GE plans.

The vision of General Education (GE) is to ensure that all CSUN students have a broad background in disciplines at the University level in order to appreciate the breadth of human knowledge and the responsibilities of concerned and engaged citizens of the world. Students must become lifelong learners and leave the University with a set of skills that includes the ability to read critically, to write and communicate orally with clarity and persuasiveness, to evaluate and draw appropriate inferences from limited information, and to access the wealth of technical, scientific and cultural information that is increasingly available in the global community. Students must gain an understanding of the major contributions made by individuals from diverse backgrounds in the sciences, business and economics, the arts, literatures, politics and technologies. It is through the GE Program that CSUN ensures that all students gain a sincere appreciation of how the diverse cultures housed in the United States, and specifically Southern California, lead to creative thinking and expression during a time in human history when cultural diversity provides different perspectives and insights from which to view human endeavors.

General Education Plan J Required Pattern of Courses

The required pattern of General Education consists of 43 units distributed among these areas:

*One 3-unit upper division course from either Area 2 or Area 5.

Ethnic Studies (E.S.) Requirement

Students are required to take 3 units of coursework designated as meeting the Ethnic Studies (E.S.) General Education requirement in order to graduate from CSUN (or any California State University).

Upon completion of an E.S. designated course, students will have met the CSU GE Area 6 requirement and the course will be designated as such on their official transcript.

Information Competence (I.C.) Requirement

Students are required to take Information Competence (I.C.) designated courses. Students will progressively acquire information competence skills by developing an understanding of information retrieval tools and practices, as well as improving their ability to evaluate and synthesize information ethically.

Students must take two I.C. designated courses, one course in the Basic Skills area and one course in the Subject Explorations area. IC-designated courses in American Institutions or Lifelong Learning may also meet this requirement.

Basic Skills (12 units: 9 units, Area 1 and 3 units, Area 2)

Basic Skills coursework provides students with the knowledge and abilities that they will find useful and necessary for other GE and University courses and in their pursuits after graduation. These fundamental courses in Area 1A: English Composition (Written Communication), Area 1B: Critical Thinking, Area 1C: Oral Communication, and Area 2: Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning) will teach students how to read to understand and write about complex topics, how to distinguish correct from faulty reasoning, how to study and appreciate mathematical ideas and quantitative reasoning, and how to make public presentations of their own thoughts and research. Students must complete this area within their first 60 units. One course in this area must include the Information Competence (I.C.) designation. Students must earn a “C-” or better grade in all four courses in order to satisfy the GE Basic Skills requirement. See the Basic Skills Policy for more information.

Subject Explorations (31 units)

Subject Explorations coursework provides courses in Arts and Humanities; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Physical and Biological Sciences; and Comparative Cultural Studies/Gender, Race, Class, and Ethnicity Studies, and Foreign Languages.

Arts and Humanities (6 units, Area 3)

Arts and Humanities coursework helps students to appreciate the rich history and diversity of human knowledge, discourse and achievements of their own and other cultures as they are expressed in the arts, literatures, religions and philosophy.

Coursework in this area must include one course in each subarea–3A, the arts, and 3B, the humanities. One Area 3 course may count toward the upper division GE requirement.

Social and Behavioral Sciences (9 units, Area 4)

Social and Behavioral Sciences coursework will give students an understanding of the behavior of humans as we relate to one another, to ourselves and to our environments, as we create the structures and values that govern our lives in the present and through time. These courses will give students an appreciation of the areas of learning concerned with human thought and an understanding of the nature, scope and limits of social-scientific study.

Students are required to take 6 units in Area 4: Social and Behavioral Sciences and 3 units in Area 4A/B: Constitution of the United States and California State and Local Government (American Institutions).

One Area 4 course may count toward the upper division GE requirement.

Physical and Biological Sciences (7-10 units, Area 5)

Physical and Biological Sciences coursework provides students with a fundamental knowledge in the sciences, an understanding of how scientific knowledge moves forward using the scientific method, and an understanding of the role of science in a world that is increasingly reliant on scientific and technological advances.

Students must also take one upper division Area 2 or Area 5 course.

Comparative Cultural Studies/Gender, Race, Class, and Ethnicity Studies, and Foreign Languages (6 units, CSUN Section F)

Comparative Cultural Studies coursework provides students with an introduction to the cultures and languages of other nations and peoples, the contributions and perspectives of cultures other than their own, and how gender is viewed in these cultures. Courses in this section will be referred to in this Catalog with the abbreviated phrase Comparative Cultural Studies.

Up to 6 units of CSUN Section F may be used to fulfill the upper division GE requirement.