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Dear Members of the NJCU Community:

This week, we announced the introduction of the : A Framework for Long-Term Financial Sustainability, Mission Focus, and Student Success. As introduced on page nine of this framework for our future, NJCU's General Education curriculum is a vital part of the student experience. In collaboration with our University Senate, the University is now poised to adopt the most significant overhaul of its general education curriculum in decades. 

As with all colleges and universities, general education provides a broader disciplinary context within which students can see and understand their majors. According to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (, general education introduces students to new intellectual experiences and ensures that students can demonstrate essential intellectual skills related to communication, reasoning, analysis, and literacy. 

However, for students to complete their degrees in a timely manner, access and ability to complete general education requirements are essential. This is particularly true of students who are transferring to NJCU.

According to , losing credits when transferring to a four-year institution decreases the likelihood of graduation.  concur. When students are forced to use transfer credits as electives, they struggle to complete their degrees in a timely manner.  examine the factors that impact transfer student completion using a curricular complexity framework, and they identify obstacles that already exist for transfer students including the timing of the courses offered and the number of prerequisite courses that control what students can take in each semester. 

The challenges faced by transfer students must be managed on top of those imposed by restrictive general education programs, and they often result in even more delays and a greater likelihood that students will not complete their degrees.

It is understandable that academic programs maintain prerequisi