“What Every Student Should Know”: General Education Requirements in Undergraduate Education

Abstract

The present paper defines general curriculum requirements in higher education. It focuses on the history of thearguments that make up general curriculum requirements starting from the Yale Report 1828 to the recentperspectives on general curriculum. The purpose of the review is to illustrate that what defines knowledgeable personis determined by the value and the philosophy of the culture of the institution. The paper concludes with Stark’sacademic plan as a model universities can utilize as a check list for what ought to be included in the generalcurriculum requirements for undergraduate education.