UH Mānoa provides an environment where both faculty and students can discover, examine, preserve, and transmit the knowledge, wisdom, and values that will enrich present and future generations. Alongside the major, UH Mānoa’s General Education (Gen Ed) program facilitates student achievement of Institutional Learning Objectives to Know (breadth and depth of knowledge), Do (intellectual and practical skills), and Value (personal and social responsibility).

General Education at UH Mānoa involves a flexible and diverse multi-disciplinary curriculum. Through Gen Ed coursework, students are exposed to different domains of knowledge and modes of scholarly inquiry. Students develop skills in written and oral communication, ethical and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and information literacy that are transferable across the curriculum. Gen Ed coursework also fosters a deeper understanding of, and appreciation for, Hawaiian culture and history.

Mission

The General Education curriculum provides all undergraduates at UH Mānoa with opportunities to build foundational knowledge, develop essential skills, and gain appreciation for disparate areas of knowledge, ways of reasoning, and human experiences. General Education, together with the major, facilitates student achievement of the UH Mānoa Institutional Learning Objectives to Know (gain breadth and depth of knowledge), Do (build intellectual and practical skills), and Value (develop personal and social responsibility).

Vision

General Education integrates the whole of a UH Mānoa experience and encourages lifelong learning and curiosity.  General Education helps UHM graduates lead more enriched lives, solve problems creatively, and become responsible citizens in an ever-changing and increasingly multicultural and interconnected world. 

Values

General Education promotes scholarship and fosters values that are the heart of what it means to be a graduate of UH Mānoa. General Education helps UHM graduates to be:

• Familiar with the culture and history of Hawaiʻi and the Asia-Pacific region

• Respectful members of multicultural communities

• Effective communicators in diverse settings including cross-cultural or international contexts

• Critical, truth-seeking, and interdisciplinary thinkers

• Informed, responsible, and ethical decision makers

• Prepared for the workplaces of the present and the future

Mission/Vision/Values Statement approved by the General Education Committee in Spring 2020