General Education Core Curriculum

If you’re ready to enroll, but lack the required credits in general education or electives, we’ve made it convenient for you to take them in class or online.

In addition to courses offered in our traditional class-by-class format, Bellevue University offers the General Education Packaged Core Curriculum. Each general education course group is made up of four 9-credit hour clusters.

You can enroll in one or all of the clusters. Completing all four general education clusters fulfills general education requirements for our bachelor’s degrees and usually takes as little as one year.

With our Core Curriculum courses, you’ll have a fuller understanding of the material presented in our various major courses of study. They also provide the necessary foundation for life-long learning. Areas of study include Basic Communications, Human Expression, Natural Sciences, and more. We’ve made them interesting, too, with topics ranging from Wizards and Words: Composition I and Harry Potter to Socrates Meets Seinfeld and the Simpsons.

It’s just one of the ways we respond to students, helping them earn credit toward their bachelor’s degrees.

Consult an Admissions Counselor to see how the credit you’ve already earned, and the training you’ve taken, may apply to your bachelor’s degree requirements.

General Education Core Curriculum*

(36 semester credit hours)

• Basic Communication (BC) (9 credit hours)
• Human Behavior (HB) (6 credit hours)
• Human Civilization (HC) (6 credit hours)
• Human Expression (HE) (6 credit hours)
• Human Thought (HT) (3 credit hours)
• Science (NS) (3 credit hours)
• Mathematics (MA) (3 credit hours)

Basic Communication (BC) (9 credit hours)

• Composition I
• Composition II
• Fundamentals of Speech Communication or Oral Communication Skills

Human Behavior (HB) (6 credit hours)

• Anthropology (any course/s)
• Psychology (any course/s)
• Sociology (any course/s)

Human Civilization (HC) (6 credit hours)

• Archeology (any course/s)
• Culture (any course/s)
• Geography (any course/s)
• History (any course/s)
• Global Studies (any course/s)
• Political Science (any course/s)
• Women’s Studies (any course/s)

Human Expression (HE) (6 credit hours)

• American Sign Language (any transfer course 100 level or above)
• Art (any course/s)
• Art History (any course/s)
• Communication (any course/s 200-level or higher)
• Graphic Design (ARCT) (any course/s)
• Drama (any transfer course 100 level or above)
• Foreign Languages (any course/s)
• Humanities (any course/s)
• Literature (any course/s)
• Music (any transfer course 100 level or above)

Human Thought (HT) (3 credit hours)

• Economics (any course/s)
• Philosophy (any course/s)
• Religion (any course/s)

Science (NS) (3 credit hours)

• Any Science Course or GE 105, GE 305, GE 410

Mathematics (MA) (3 credit hours)

• Intermediate Algebra (excluding MA 140) Or
• A more advanced mathematics course

In addition to satisfying the General Education Core, all students must complete the Signature Series.

Kirkpatrick Signature Series (9 credit hours)

• LA 400 American Vision and Values
• LA 410 Tradition and Change
• LA 420 Freedom and Responsibility

* The substitution of transfer courses and the use of Experiential Learning Assessment (ELA) credit is made as designated by the office of the appropriate college dean. There is a designated CLEP/DSST examination or in-house examination available for each of the General Education Core requirements, except for the Kirkpatrick Signature Series requirement. There are no substitution, ELA, or transfer courses for the Kirkpatrick Signature Series.

General Education Packaged Core

To help students complete the requirements of the General Education Core, Bellevue University has streamlined and packaged its Core requirements into four 9-credit online cluster courses, The General Education Packaged Core. Courses within the General Education Packaged Core listed below include the Core Requirement indicated in parenthesis.

General Education Core Curriculum represented below:

• Basic Communication - Oral Com and Comp I and II (BC)
• Human Behavior - HB
• Human Civilization - HC
• Human Expression - HE
• Human Thought - HT
• Science - NS
• Mathematics - MA

Creative Communication (9 credit hours)

• CA 109 Oral Communication Skills (BC)
• EN 101 Composition I (BC)
• EN 260 Comedy on Stage and Screen: A Serious Look at What Makes Us Laugh (HE)

Writing and Recreation: Work and Play in Modern America (9 credit hours)

• EN 102 Composition II (BC)
• IGEN 204 Work vs. Play: How to Make a Living and Still Have Fun (HB)
• IGEN 214 The Depiction of Work and Play in the Arts (HE)

Nobel Wouldn’t Have Won His Own Prize and Polar Bears Aren’t White: The History, Philosophy, and Practice of Science (9 credit hours)

• IGEN 203 History of Science (HC)
• IGEN 213 Philosophy of Science (HT)
• IGEN 223 Nature, Ecology, Genetics, and Environment (NS)

MathWorld (9 credit hours)

• IGEN 205 Math in History, Philosophy, and Ethics (HC)
• IGEN 215 Math and Society (HB)
• MA 101 Intermediate Algebra (MA)