This discussion presents recent data on the behavior of UC Davis students in their choice of courses with regard to the breadth of those courses. The students in the study are those who graduated in the 2000-2001 academic year. It is related to the WASC Guideline on general education.

In the context of general education at UC Davis, each major is assigned to one of three topical breadth categories: Science and Engineering, Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences. In this study, we assigned the units taken by each student to one of those three categories. We then considered the distribution of units as a function of the category of the student's major. The results are shown here. For example, students with a major in one of the social sciences took 25% of their units in courses from departments in the category of science and engineering and 25% of their units from departments in the arts and humanities category for a total of 50% of their units outside of departments within the social sciences category. For students in the sciences and engineering and the arts and humanities, the corresponding totals are 29% and 36%, respectively. Overall UC Davis students took 38% of their units outside of the topical breadth category of their own major.

These results demonstrate that typical UC Davis students voluntarily select course programs with impressive breadth. While breadth should not be the only goal of a general education program, it is certainly one of the most important desired outcomes.

Also of interest relative to general education are the Hewlett grant and the GE Scholars program, which were discussed in the essay.