UMD’s Liberal Education Program (“Lib Ed”) is the common educational experience for all undergraduate degree programs. Lib Ed prepares students to lead productive and socially responsible lives in a diverse and rapidly changing world; helps students develop competencies that can be adapted to any occupation or situation; and offers students the kind of broad education needed to thrive as lifelong learners and globally engaged citizens.
UMD Lib Ed courses may be woven through each student’s course of study. Along with major and elective coursework plus co-curricular educational experiences, Lib Ed courses directly support UMD’s goals to develop broadly educated students who are “Prepared, Informed, and Committed” as described below.
UMD Goals for Liberally Educated Students
Lib Ed Program
UMD Lib Ed courses specifically address student skills and knowledge through:
- Identifying, analyzing and solving problems; demonstrating critical and analytical thinking competency within and across various fields of knowledge
- Communicating effectively through writing and speaking
- Accessing, evaluating, and making use of information gathered through multiple methodologies
- Developing foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture and society
- Learning about the past and its relevance to the present and the future
- Examining controversies and unanswered questions in multiple domains of knowledge
Lib Ed + Majors + Electives + Co-Curriculars
Through the multitude of curricular and co-curricular experiences, UMD graduates students who:
- Think creatively
- Demonstrate intellectual curiosity, imagination and flexibility
- Work productively independently and through collaboration
- Are committed to:
- Life-long learning
- Civic engagement and social responsibility
- Knowledge and competence across cultures
- Considering ethical implications of ideas and actions
- Understanding contemporary global issues
Program Requirements
The Lib Ed Program is divided into three parts, with three or four category requirements in each part, and all category requirements must be completed (minimum 31-40 credits). Lib Ed Program credits are minimized by weaving Lib Ed courses into degree and major requirements and by taking Lib Ed courses listed in two categories*. In these instances, the credits are counted in one place for the student’s program of study.
Courses listed for the categories in each year's catalog have been formally proposed by faculty and are reviewed/accepted by the UMD Liberal Education Subcommittee. Refer to the Lib Ed Program Catalog Year Details for more information about catalog years.
*A Lib Ed course listed for Part 2: Knowledge Domains and Part 3: Key Topics fulfills both requirements.
Lib Ed Requirements 2012-13 through 2022-23
Through 2022-23, the Lib Ed Program requires completion of the following 10 categories (31-40 minimum credits).
Part I: Language and Reasoning Skills (9 credits)
a. Writing and Information Literacy - WRIT 1120 (3 credits)
b. Oral Communication and Languages (3 credits)
c. Logic and Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits)
Part II: Knowledge Domains (22 credits)
a. Natural Sciences (7 credits, 2 course subjects*, 1 lab)
b. Social Sciences (6 credits, 2 course subjects*)
c. Humanities (6 credits, 2 course subjects*)
d. Fine Arts (3 credits)
*Course subject simply means the designator area or prefix. For example, taking two different course subjects in the Natural Science category could be a Biology (BIOL) course and a Chemistry (CHEM) course.
Part III: Key Topics (9 credits)
a. Global Perspectives (3 credits)
b. Cultural Diversity in the US (3 credits)
c. Sustainability (3 credits)
Lib Ed Requirements beginning 2023-24
Beginning fall 2023, the Lib Ed Program requires completion of the following 11 categories (31-40 minimum credits).
Part 1: Language, Reasoning Skills, and Theorizing Power (12 credits)
Select one course from each category.
These courses do not fulfill any other Lib Ed requirement.
a. Logic and Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits)
b. Oral Communication and Languages (3 credits)
c. Theorizing, Race, Power and Justice (3 credits)
d. Writing and Information Literacy - WRIT 1120 (3 credits)
Part 2: Knowledge Domains (19 credits)
Select one course from each of two categories and two courses from each of the other two categories. Two courses taken in a category must be different subjects within the category. For example, two different subjects within the Natural Sciences category could be a Biology (BIOL) and a Chemistry (CHEM) course.
*Students must complete one Natural Science course with a lab component.
Knowledge Domain courses may also fulfill Key Topics requirements.
a. Fine Arts (3 credits minimum)
b. Humanities (3 credits minimum)
c. Natural Sciences (4 credits minimum, one lab course required)
d. Social Sciences (3 credits minimum)
Part 3: Key Topics (9 credits)
Select one course from each category.
Key Topics courses may also fulfill Knowledge Domain requirements.
a. Global Perspectives (3 credits)
b. Cultural Diversity in the US (3 credits)
c. Sustainability (3 credits)
Lib Ed Program Catalog Year Details
- Students follow the catalog requirements for the year they were admitted and enrolled into UMD. Upon the advice of their collegiate advising office, a student may move to a more recent catalog for their major, minor, and/or Lib Ed requirements.
- Transfer students admitted to UMD may elect to meet the requirements of the catalog in effect when they initially enrolled at a two- or four-year institution up to three years prior to their first semester at UMD. Requests for moving to a prior catalog are approved by the dean of the college in which the student is enrolled.
- Former students who re-enter UMD after an absence of two or more semesters, excluding summer session, must meet the requirements of the current catalog unless the dean of the college in which they enroll approves use of the requirements from an earlier catalog up to three years prior to the term of re-entry.
- Lib Ed credit is NOT applied retroactively. If a student takes a non-Lib Ed course and the course is subsequently approved for Lib Ed, then the student DOES NOT receive Lib Ed credit retroactively. Petitions requesting Lib Ed credit in these situations will be denied. Students do have the option of changing their Lib Ed catalog year upon the advice of their advisor.
Category Descriptions with Student Learning Outcomes
Each Lib Ed category has a distinct purpose and student learning outcomes (SLOs) for which students are assessed.
Part 1: Language, Reasoning Skills, and Theorizing Power
Logic and Quantitative Reasoning
Category Description: Courses approved for Logic and Quantitative Reasoning will develop students’ logic and/or quantitative reasoning skills and enable them to apply these skills to a variety of everyday situations.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will appropriately translate problems to symbolic systems.
- SLO 2: Students will apply mathematical or logical reasoning to identify potential solutions.
- SLO 3: Students will evaluate whether mathematical or logical reasoning and conclusions are valid.
Oral Communication and Languages
Category Description: Courses approved for Oral Communication will have as their primary focus the development of the knowledge and skill sets necessary for effective oral communication. Courses approved for liberal education credit in Languages will develop students’ communicative skills and/or language competence in languages other than English.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students formulate organized, clear and informative messages.
- SLO 2: Students formulate effective messages appropriate to audience, medium and contexts.
- SLO 3: Students apply effective verbal and nonverbal concepts of communication in message delivery.
Theorizing Race, Power, and Justice
Category Description: Courses approved for Theorizing Race, Power and Justice will focus on enabling students to understand systemic analyses of discipline-specific race issues, including historical, socio-cultural, institutional, structural, and/or all of the aforementioned (i.e., systemic) analyses or ways of thinking. These courses provide students with an opportunity to understand and engage in discourse regarding issues of race and the ways race is related to inequalities, oppression, power, and social and economic justice in the United States. Courses can come from any discipline and can focus on discipline-specific problems related to race, power, and justice.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will explain present-day racial inequalities or other avenues of racial oppression by applying historical, socio-cultural, institutional, structural and/or all of the aforementioned (i.e., systemic) ways of thinking.
- SLO 2: Students will apply historical, socio-cultural, institutional, structural and/or all of the aforementioned (i.e., systemic) ways of thinking to discipline-specific real cases about race, power, and justice.
Writing and Information Literacy
Category Description: WRIT 1120 College Writing is the only approved course for the category. The course provides students with a strong foundation in written communication and information literacy that is developed further in advanced writing courses and in all programs of study.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will analyze their own and others’ texts to demonstrate knowledge and articulate the rhetorical situation and how the texts address the situation.
- SLO 2: Students will employ rhetorical choices appropriate to specific writing situations.
- SLO 3: Students will locate, evaluate, and effectively use sources relevant for their rhetorical situation.
- SLO 4: Students will use an iterative and collaborative process to assess instructor, self, group, and peer critique of drafts in order to rewrite texts.
Part 2: Knowledge Domains
Fine Arts
Category Description: Courses approved for Fine Arts use imagination, creativity, and discipline-specific skills to reflect the complexity of human life. Fines Arts courses develop the student’s ability to think and act with creativity, demonstrating intellectual curiosity, imagination and flexibility. These courses also develop the student’s ability to appreciate the aesthetic value of static and kinetic fine art.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students explain and/or demonstrate how artists conceptualize and use creative processes to make art.
- SLO 2: Students analyze and/or interpret art using discipline-specific methodologies.
- SLO 3: Students will articulate ways in which artistic expression embodies the culture and values of its time and/or place.
Humanities
Category Description: The Humanities are those branches of knowledge concerned with human thought and culture. In courses approved for Humanities, students learn to describe, analyze, interpret, and otherwise critically examine the products and processes of human culture, including material artifacts, activities, and systems of meaning and value (such as particular philosophical, linguistic, and intellectual traditions or innovations). Humanities courses typically situate the objects of study historically and within the context of a particular culture or cultures. Humanities courses introduce students to the theories and methods of inquiry relevant to a particular field, or fields, of humanistic study, and they make students aware of the controversies within that discipline. Humanities courses therefore encourage students to examine objects of humanistic study closely, analytically, and critically in order to deepen their appreciation for the diversity and complexity of human culture.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will apply humanistic methods of inquiry and interpretation to the product/processes of human thought and culture.
- SLO 2: Students will analyze products/processes of human thought and culture.
- SLO 3: Students will explain how the products/processes of human thought and culture relate to cultural, social, or historical contexts.
Natural Sciences
Category Description: Courses in the Natural Sciences category teach students how to formulate and test scientific hypotheses, interpret experimentally obtained data, and draw conclusions from the data. They also create a link between scientific ideas and problems that arise in the everyday world.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students identify concepts and principles that comprise the foundational knowledge of the discipline.
- SLO 2: Students explain how scientific inquiry is used to address questions about natural phenomena.
- SLO 3: Students will apply the scientific method to address questions about natural phenomena.
Social Sciences
Category Description: Social Sciences are those branches of knowledge that investigate how cultural, social, and structural factors influence human social behavior. Approved Social Sciences courses introduce students to the major theoretical perspectives in the given field, such that students understand the meaning and application of key concepts, learn how to both test and build theory, and articulate policy implications of theory. Students are introduced to standard methodological approaches utilized by social scientists so that they learn how to formulate hypotheses, collect data, interpret and analyze data, and draw conclusions.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will demonstrate knowledge of concepts and principles that comprise the foundational knowledge of the discipline.
- SLO 2: Students will apply concepts and principles to issues in the discipline.
Part 3: Key Topics
Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
Category Description: Courses approved for the Cultural Diversity in the United States requirement focus on creating awareness of diverse cultural values and increasing a commitment to knowledge and competence across various cultures, with an emphasis on those represented in the United States. Courses can come from a variety of disciplines, including interdisciplinary approaches involving two or more departments. These courses provide students with an opportunity to broaden their knowledge of the culturally complex social fabric of the United States and to enhance their abilities to interact with the diverse groups that make up our nation.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will interpret cultural practices, traditions, and/or values within or across diverse groups in the U.S.
- SLO 2: Students will explain how social, political, and/or economic issues shape or have been shaped by cultural groups.
- SLO 3: Students will describe how meanings and practices within one’s own cultural context influence the awareness of self and others.
Global Perspectives
Category Description: Courses approved for the Global Perspective requirement focus on developing an awareness of contemporary global topics and transnational connections. Global topics entail interrelationships among cultures, societies, nations, and other social units worldwide, and they include transnational processes such as migration, urbanization, trade, diplomacy, and information flow. Courses can come from a variety of disciplines, including interdisciplinary approaches involving two or more departments. Courses will examine global topics facing at least one country other than the United States, with an emphasis on shifts in cultural, economic, political, and social relationships. Students will have the opportunity to consider matters such as the rights and responsibilities of global citizenship and to develop greater cross-cultural competence.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students explain and interpret histories, conditions, developments, trends and interconnections relevant to global issues.
- SLO 2: Students compare and contrast their own cultures, histories and perspectives with those of other international cultures.
- SLO 3: Students evaluate how their own culture and histories affect their perspective on international cultures and global issues.
- SLO 4: Students evaluate how they impact and are impacted by global circumstances.
Sustainability
Category Description: Courses approved for the Sustainability category focus on developing an awareness of the interaction of the natural environment with societal needs and desires. Courses can come from a variety of disciplines, including interdisciplinary approaches involving two or more departments. Courses will examine ways in which the natural environment interacts with economic, social, and political forces in a local, national and/or global context. Students will develop the ability to understand and analyze the impact of sustainability in their lives.
Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 1: Students will demonstrate knowledge of fundamental sustainability principles embedded within systems/contexts.
- SLO 2: Students analyze practices or policies that impact human society and the natural environment using sustainability principles.