Why General Education

General Education at the University of Oregon

The UO undergraduate educational experience is divided into three roughly equal parts: General Education, Major, and Electives.

General Education course work provides an ideal opportunity to explore a wide range of subjects, and will be the focus at the outset of your college experience. A large portion of your General Education coursework is designed to introduce key ideas in three areas of human knowledge:

• arts and letters
• social science
• science

The other components of general education are:

• writing and mathematics, which hone  reasoning and analytical skills
• multicultural studies and foreign language, which deepen understanding and appreciation of human diversity