General Education Requirements

Oregon Tech's General Education requirements provide breadth and depth to the Oregon Tech educational experience.  The requirements are designed to help students widen perspectives, explore relationships between subjects, and develop critical and analytical thinking skills in areas integrated with a student's major. General education provides the core of an undergraduate university education. These courses help students make progress toward becoming educated persons and provide a foundation for lifelong learning.

Through general education at Oregon Tech, students study broad topics, principles, theories, and disciplines. The courses are organized within the curriculum in such a manner that students will acquire knowledge, abilities, and appreciation as integrated elements of the educational experience. In addition, general education courses teach students to communicate clearly, think critically and globally, define and solve problems within and across disciplines, calculate logically, and apply scientific reasoning. No matter what their major, students will benefit from studying areas of knowledge that help them become competent, well-rounded professionals as well as well-educated human beings and citizens.

General education credits at Oregon Tech total 55 credits and include 18 credits of Communication, 9 credits of Humanities, 12 credits of Social Science and 16 credits of Science/Math with a least 4 credits of college-level math where intermediate algebra is a prerequisite.

Additional Resources

Institutional Student Learning Outcomes
Office of Academic Excellence

Requirements

  • COM 111Z - Public Speaking
  • WRI 121Z - Composition I
  • WRI 122Z - Composition II OR WRI 227Z - Technical Writing
  • Plus 6 credits from the following list:
    • COM 205 - Intercultural Comm
    • COM 218Z - Interpersonal Communication
    • COM 320 - Advanced Intercultural Comm
    • COM 347 - Negotiation & Conflict Resol'n
    • COM 401 - Civil Engineering Project I
    • SPE 314 - Argumentation
    • SPE 321 - Small Group/Team Comm
    • WRI 123 - Research Writing
    • WRI 214 - Business Correspondence
    • WRI 227Z - Technical Writing
    • WRI 327 - Advanced Tech Writing
    • WRI 328 - Style
    • WRI 345 - Science Writing
    • WRI 350 - Documentation Development
    • WRI 410 - Proposal & Grant Writing

Nine credits selected by student or specified by a major department from the following:

  • ART-Art
  • ENG-English Literature
  • HUM-Humanities
  • LIT-Literature
  • MUS-Music
  • PHIL-Philosophy

Languages (second year/200-level only)


Other transfer courses, defined as "humanities" by the Registrar's Office, maybe used in this category.
NOTE: No more than three credits of activity or performance-based courses may be used toward graduation from this category.

Twelve credits selected by the student or specified by the major department from the following:

  • ANTH - Anthropology
  • ECO - Economics
  • GEOG - Geography
  • HIST - History
  • PSCI - Political Science
  • PSY - Psychology
  • SOC - Sociology

 

Other transfer courses, defined as "social science" by the Registrar's Office, may be used in this category. GEOG 105, GEOG 115, and GEOG 305 may NOT be used to satisfy social science credits.

* ANTH 101 may not be used to satisfy both Social Science and Science credits 

* GEOG 105 may not be used to satisfy Social Science credits

One four-credit college-level mathematics course for which at least intermediate algebra is the course prerequisite. Plus 12 credits selected by student or specified by major department from biological sciences (BIO, CHE), mathematics (MATH), statistics (STAT), physical sciences (PHY), physical geography (GEOG 105, GEOG 115, or GEOG 305), geology, or physical anthropology (ANTH 101). At least four credits must be completed from a laboratory-based science course in BIO, CHE, GEOG 105, 115, 305 or PHY. Currently ENV does NOT count as Lab Science

Students are encouraged to select at least one class from the following lists of intercultural courses. These courses also satisfy general education requirements.

Humanities: COM 205 Intercultural Communication, COM 320 Advanced
Intercultural Communication, ENG 381 Contemporary World Literature, SPAN 201/202/203 Second-Year Spanish.

Social Science: ANTH 103 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, GEOG 106 Cultural Geography I, GEOG 107 Cultural Geography II, GEOG 108 Cultural Geography III, HIST 392 Modern Asia.

Baccalaureate students must complete a minimum of 60 credits of upper-division work before a degree will be awarded. Upper-division work is defined as 300- and 400-level classes at a bachelor's degree-granting institution.

The Bachelor of Science degree requires the student to opt between completion of 36 credits in mathematics and science or 45 credits in mathematics, science, and social science. Students placed at a higher beginning level of mathematics than is published in the curriculum of their major may choose to substitute those mathematics credits surpassed by their accelerated level of placement with electives from any department to attain the required number of general education credits required by the university for graduation.

Specific requirements for demonstrating computer proficiency may be established by the academic department.

If a student holds a baccalaureate degree or higher from a recognized, accredited institution, as determined by Oregon Tech, the Oregon Tech general education requirements for the Oregon Tech baccalaureate may be substituted, subject to departmental accreditation requirements.

Transfer students entering Oregon Tech who have earned either an Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree (AAOT) or an Associate of Science in Business degree (ASOTB) from an Oregon community college will be considered as having met Oregon Tech's lower division general education requirements. Please see the Oregon Tech website for the updated list of courses granted.