At the University of Pittsburgh, our commitment lies in enhancing the academic journey of every undergraduate student by providing enriching opportunities for learning, personal development, and success, all while minimizing financial strain and time to graduation. In pursuit of this ambitious objective, the Office of the Provost and Academic Leadership Team have established a task force comprising faculty members, advisors, staff, and students from various schools and campuses.
This task force, in collaboration with internal and national experts, will evaluate the current University-wide student learning outcomes and general education curricula to propose a more cohesive and comprehensive model that can be implemented across all academic units. The primary aim of this initiative is to create a curriculum and learning objectives that are cohesive, quantifiable, and adaptable, with a focus on enhancing student competencies such as critical thinking, communication, leadership, data analysis, intercultural and global awareness, and collaboration.
Through a collaborative approach involving faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community stakeholders, the task force will explore the concept of educating students as empowered individuals who possess independent thinking skills and the capacity to adapt to a dynamic world with intentionality and a sense of civic responsibility, as articulated in the “General Education Essentials” by Paul Hanstedt.
The key goals of this endeavor include redefining the overarching learning outcomes at Pitt and evaluating the feasibility of establishing a unified set of general education requirements applicable to all undergraduate programs. It is important to highlight that while this process aims to ensure consistency and transferability of foundational requirements across the University, individual academic units retain the flexibility to implement additional general education criteria tailored to their specific needs.
For more details on the vision of the task force, please refer to the provided link.