1. ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION (6 credits – be taken in first 30 credits)
Courses listed under this category are intended to provide students with reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills necessary for effective communication during their study and while practicing their professions. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits from this category in their freshman year.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate fluency in delivering thoughtful and organized assignment using authentic source of information and technologies suitable for the topic, purpose and audience;
• Compose and articulate logical, grammatically correct, and organized writing assignments using well documented ideas and evidences suitable for the topic, purpose, and audience; and
• Recognize plagiarism and apply ethical values in both oral and written communications.
2. QUANTITATIVE Literacy (6 credits – 3 credits to be taken within first 30 credit hours)
Having the knowledge of basic mathematics and analytical concepts is essential for today’s world in which every life phenomenon is eventually resolved into numbers, data, and algorithms. Taking courses from this category will equip students with mathematical and analytical operational skills needed for real world applications, fact-finding and
decision-making. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits from this category.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Select and comprehend information with mathematical content of numerical data and graphical format;
• Identify and apply proper mathematical logic in solving practical applications; and
• Analyze and conclude mathematical trends and relationships using quantitative reasoning.
3. SOCIAL SCIENCES (6 credits – can be taken any year during studies)
Courses listed under this category are intended to provide students with an understanding of human behaviors as individuals and groups and other organized social and institutional structures. Taking courses from this category will help students in knowing how to professionally and personally adapt into the public domain as a responsible
citizen. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits from this category.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Explain theories and methods used in social sciences to predict human behaviors as individuals or groups;
• Analyze the influence of political, social, and cultural aspects on individuals and groups; and
• Demonstrate an understanding of social sciences by the reflection of their values as responsible citizens.
4. HUMANITIES (6 credits – can be taken any year during studies)
Taking courses from this category will help students to explore the fundamental ideas and values that shape our civilizations and their historical course of progression using analytical, critical, and interpretive approaches. Introducing students to the foundations of the available ethnic and ideological backgrounds within and outside of
their own perspectives will also help them to embrace and understand different world views. Students are required
to take a minimum of 6 credits from this category.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Read and think critically while exploring cultures and their relation to history, beliefs, politics, and economy and their collective functioning mechanism;
• Investigate and thoughtfully respond to different beliefs and ideas of different backgrounds; and
• Demonstrate appreciation toward this vast heritage of humanity that has shaped the life they live in today.
5. ARTS (3 credits – can be taken any year during studies)
This category of courses is intended to help students understand how we can transform our ideas and imagination into something tangible by being creative while expressing our senses. Through arts, students can explore the human capacity of creativity and imagination and the relationship between artists and their work, and societies they
lived in. Students are required to take a minimum of 3 credits from this category.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Describe critically an artistic work using relevant knowledge;
• Identify and explain relationships between artistic works and their cultural, social, and historical aspects; and
• Demonstrate an understanding of arts by producing a creative work through expressing their own imagination.
6. NATURAL SCIENCES (7 credits – one to be taken within first 30 credit hours)
This category of courses is intended to stimulate students’ curiosity toward the natural world and the scientific ways of its exploration. The progression of our societies is highly dependent on science and technology that are rooted from nature. Students are required to take a minimum of 7 credits from this category including at least one 4-credit
lab science course.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate understanding of basic concepts and theories that the natural world is built upon;
• Develop an understanding of scientific inquiry and the quantitative techniques of finding facts; and
• Describe how the aspect of natural processes influence their daily life and the societies they live in.
7. IT LITERACY (3 credits)
Our world is becoming heavily dependent on the binary machines which are also undergoing a fast pace of evolution. Courses listed under this category are meant to help students in developing necessary IT knowledge required to analyze and implement solutions involving use of the computer, as well as ethical and social issues surrounding the
place of technology in our lives. Students are required to take a minimum of 3 credit hours from this category.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate an understanding of computer hardware and their application software;
• Demonstrate computer literacy in academic and professional contexts; and
• Understand the legal, social, economic, ethical and philosophical implications of technology and its usage.
8. INTERDISCIPLINARY Seminar/Capstone (3 credits)
With the advancement of science, technology, and the humanities, disciplines are becoming more interconnected. Accordingly, innovation and creativity demand a collective knowledge of multiple disciplines. Taking a course under this category will help students to understand how to utilize their knowledge and skills across disciplines in an integrated and harmonized way. Students are required to take a minimum of 3 credits from this category in their senior year. These courses follow the modality of project-based learning.
Upon the completion of this category, students will be able to:
• Identify an issue that is relevant to more than a discipline and the integration between the issue and each discipline; and
• Explain the advantages of integrating various disciplines