The General Education Program at Wayne State was established in 1987 for all undergraduate students pursuing bachelor's degrees regardless of their academic specialties. These requirements contribute to the goal of ensuring that all students have the basic skills fundamental to success in college while simultaneously achieving the intellectual breadth necessary to place specialized and professional curricula in proper perspective. By means of the General Education Program, undergraduate students improve their skills and are introduced to methods of inquiry, modes of thought, bodies of knowledge, and representative ideas drawn from a wide range of academic disciplines.

The University adopted major revisions to the General Education curriculum effective Fall 2018. Our Program provides both structure and flexibility to help students develop core skills and information literacy, explore new pathways, cultivate habits of lifelong learning, and take advantage of Wayne State's extraordinary resources.  Each of these efforts is aligned with the University's mission to create knowledge and prepare a diverse body of students to thrive in an increasingly complex and global society. The Program requires a maximum of 35 credits in the categories of Competencies, Inquiries, and Wayne Experience, as described below. Please contact your advisor if you have questions about General Education Requirements specific to your academic plan of work.

General Education Competencies

Competency requirements ensure that students develop and demonstrate early in their academic careers fundamental skills in the following areas that underlie and make possible the acquisition of knowledge.

• Quantitative Experience (QE), satisfied through an appropriate course in mathematics, statistics, or quantitative reasoning.
• Oral Communication (OC); and
• Written Communication (Basic Composition - BC, and Intermediate Composition - IC)

General Education Inquiries

Inquiry Requirements have a two-fold purpose:

1. to enable students to acquire knowledge and demonstrate understanding in a broad range of academic disciplines; and
2. to enable students to develop and demonstrate the ability to apply methodological skills that encourage continued exploration on an independent level throughout their lives.

Inquiry Requirements are organized in the following categories of inquiry:

• Civic Literacy (CIV)
• Cultural Inquiry (CI)
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Inquiry (DEI)
• Global Learning Inquiry (GL)
• Natural Scientific Inquiry (NSI)
• Social Inquiry (SI)

Wayne Experience Requirements

The Wayne Experience (WE), a course required of all first-year students and selected from a list of specialized one-credit courses, plays an instrumental role in socializing students into the university community. WE provides activities that will increase students’ connections with fellow students, academic advising staff, and their instructors. The course will enhance student engagement, success, and retention by implementing high-impact practices within a student’s first year in college, and will help to build key skills and habits for successful navigation of the university. These skills and habits include time management, study and test-taking skills, and engaging in on- and off-campus community activities. Transformative educational experience like WE can foster student motivation, engagement, learning, achievement, persistence and degree attainment.

[Note: The WE requirement is currently suspended for the 2024-2025 academic year]

General Education Exemptions for Second Degree and Transfer Students

Students who hold a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution and who seek a second bachelor's degree are exempt from the University’s General Education requirements, but still must satisfy all School/College, department, and program requirements.  

Equivalent courses taken at another institution may satisfy General Education requirements. Transfer students who have satisfied all requirements of the Michigan Transfer Agreement (MTA) are exempted from the University’s General Education requirements, but still must satisfy all School/College, department, and program requirements.