Purpose of Issues Courses

At the highest levels, courses in the General Education Program develop your ability to work across boundaries and apply what you learn in new and challenging ways. Thus, the Issues requirement seeks to have you apply learning across disciplines by learning and working with you from a wide variety of majors.

Issues courses address widely recognized human issues from the viewpoint of one discipline, but welcome multidisciplinary approaches in each course. You will develop your ability to draw on previous knowledge and experience, collaborate with others, and address problems that connect to important world issues.

• Globalization
• Health
• Human Rights
• Identity
• Information, Innovation, or Technology
• Sustainability

Issues Requirements

• Two courses (two courses from two different disciplines/course prefixes).
• You may choose courses from the same Issues category (Globalization, Health, etc.) or from different Issues categories.
• If a course is cross-listed in two disciplines/course prefixes, your second course must be taken from a third discipline/course prefix.
• Issues courses must be taken at GVSU (except for study abroad, see gvsu.edu/studyabroad).
• Issues courses have a junior standing prerequisite.
• For class standing, a junior is defined as a student who has earned 55-84 credits. For prerequisite checking, a student must have completed or will have completed at least 55 credits prior to taking the course. However, they can register for the class while the final credits are in progress.