spring 2024
The University of Illinois requires that all undergraduate students take General Education - or "Gen Ed" - courses to gain and use broad knowledge beyond the specialized learning they will do in a major field of study. These Gen Ed requirements cover the kinds of knowledge all students should have: the humanities and arts, social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences and technology, quantitative reasoning, composition/writing, and cultural studies.
General Education courses at Illinois are mindful of our students' diverse backgrounds, needs, and interests, and are an essential component of the transformative learning that prepares our graduates to become alumni who make a significant societal impact. These courses build students' abilities to think critically, solve problems, generate new ideas and create knowledge, make connections between academic disciplines, respect and understand differences, and develop as citizens and leaders.
General Education at Illinois is more than a set of required courses; it is a gateway into the Illinois experience.
For a list of current courses approved for General Education credit, please click on the links (organized by Gen Ed category) below.
General Education Course Lists by Category
| GENERAL EDUCATION CATEGORY |
|---|
| Quantitative Reasoning |
| Composition I |
| Cultural Studies |
| Natural Sciences & Technology |
| Humanities & the Arts |
| Advanced Composition |
| Social & Behavioral Sciences |
General Education Language Requirement
Effective for all entering freshmen in Fall 2000 or later, the following language requirement must be completed for graduation.
This requirement may be satisfied by:
- Successfully completing a third-semester college-level course in a language other than English;
- Successful completion, in high school, of the third year of a language other than English; or
- Demonstrating proficiency at the third semester level in a language proficiency examination approved by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the appropriate department.
Current list of courses approved to satisfy the language requirement. Expanded details on the Language requirements can be found here.
If you enter UIUC without three years of language other than English in high school, you must take a language placement test to determine the courses in which you should enroll.
An exception to the University third-level requirements is for the students in the Gies College of Business (BUS) who matriculated prior to Fall 2021 and all students in the Sciences and Letters Curriculum of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS). These students are expected to gain language knowledge equivalent to the completion of the fourth semester of college study in a language. The Language requirement may be met in any of the following ways:
- Successfully completing a fourth-semester college-level course in a language other than English;
- Successful completion, in high school, of the fourth year of a language other than English;
- Successful completion of the third-semester level in each of two different languages other than English by any combination of high school and college work;
- Demonstrating proficiency at the fourth-semester level in a language proficiency examination approved by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the appropriate department.
Students enrolled in the LAS Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Specialized Curricula are exempt from the four semester LAS Language requirement and must instead adhere to the Campus requirement of three semesters or equivalent. Please contact your adviser if you have any further questions.