While some colleges are altering their general education policies, AU's current program effectively serves the interests of its students, said Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Academic Affairs Haig Mardirosian.
Students at AU, like at many other colleges, must complete a disciplined general education program in order to graduate. AU's general education program was aimed to provide students with critical thinking skills while getting students to ethically and intuitively consider a wide range of human perspectives, Mardirosian said in an e-mail.
While colleges around the country were looking for ways to revamp their general education programs, AU's general education program has remained relatively the same since the university administration created it in the late 1980s, he said.
Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., has started a three dimensional education program centered on a life skills workshop, an interdisciplinary core curriculum and professional courses, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Champlain President David F. Finney developed the "upside-down curriculum," which was introduced starting with the class of 2011, the Chronicle reported. Although life-skills courses are offered at many colleges, Champlain requires students take them. Classes offered include a course in buying a car or another in planning a career.
Champlain College representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Madeline Kuhn, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said she prefers the AU system.
"[Champlain's curriculum is] really interesting, but life skills classes should be taken later on as opposed to learning them early," she said.
Catherine Heir, a freshman in Kogod, said she believes life skills classes are meant for high school.
"I wouldn't like it," she said. "If I were to take one class called life skills, that would be okay, but I came to college to take academic classes."
Since AU's general education program was established, multiple colleges have used AU as a model for their own general education programs, Mardirosian said.
"The mission was and is to experience a breadth of thinking and inquiry regardless of degree objective," he said in an e-mail.
AU is always thinking about how to improve general education and already exhibits an interdisciplinary system, similar to Champlain College's goal, Mardirosian.
"Courses like those in the School of International Service in particular, are often predicated on both rudiments of social science (sociology, anthropology, economics and political science) and humanities (history, the arts, culture and language)," he said in an e-mail.
Students should utilize the career services offered at AU and make career planning a part of their everyday life, Mardirosian said.
"Let academic credit not be the driver, but rather the golden opportunities that are already here on an ongoing basis," he said in an e-mail.
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