Case Western Reserve University adopted a new set of Unified General Education Requirements (UGER) for students who matriculated in Summer 2023 or later. CWRU undergraduate students who matriculated in Spring 2023 or earlier will continue under the SAGES, physical education, and school-specific general education requirements in place at the time of matriculation at CWRU.
With the UGER, there are some new opportunities for satisfying existing degree requirements with coursework that is taken beginning in the semester in which the course has been approved and added to the UGER list. These opportunities are outlined on this page. The below information applies to students who matriculated in Spring 2023 or earlier.
UGER courses that can fulfill SAGES Requirements
USNA, USSO, and USSY courses will continue to be offered through Spring 2025.
Beginning in Summer 2024, students can fulfill a University Seminar requirement by completing any USNA, USSO, or USSY course; there is no longer the requirement that each course comes from a different thematic area.
In addition, students may also take any course designated in SIS as a “Communication Intensive” course to fulfill any USNA, USSO, or USSY requirement. In order to receive UGER or SAGES credit for a Communication Intensive course, you must have taken the approved and designated CI version. In other words, if you took the course previous to its designation in the UGER, that course cannot fulfill the CI requirement.
Note: If a student takes a department-based Communication Intensive course to count in place of a University Seminar, it cannot also count as part of their school-specific breadth requirements.
SAGES Departmental Seminar courses will continue to be offered through Spring 2026.
Students may also satisfy this requirement by taking a course designated in SIS as a “UGER Disciplinary Communication”.
SAGES Capstone courses will continue to be offered through Spring 2027.
Students may also satisfy this requirement by taking a course designated in SIS as a “UGER Capstone Project” course.
UGER courses that can fulfill Physical Education Requirements
PHED and other courses that have typically counted toward this requirement will continue to be offered.
Students may also take courses designated in SIS as “UGER Wellness”. Please note:
- UGER Wellness courses are divided between those that include significant physical movement and those that do not. This distinction is important for students following the UGER, but will not matter for students who matriculated in Spring 2023 or earlier and are completing the current Physical Education requirement; any Wellness course may count for students who matriculated in Spring 2023 or earlier.
- Some UGER Wellness courses will have credit hours assigned to them; those credits will count toward the total credit hours required for your degree. In addition, if appropriate, those courses may also count toward your school-based breadth requirements as they currently do based on course prefix.
UGER courses that can fulfill school-specific General Education Requirements
Students should continue to refer to their appropriate General Bulletin term for their school-specific General Education Requirements.
Click the links below to access the General Education Requirements for any of the previous six academic years. Students should navigate to their specific school or college’s general education requirements within their Bulletin year. Students can verify their Bulletin term in SIS in their Academic Requirements Report.
Quantitative Reasoning
Students may fulfill this requirement with courses designated in SIS as:
- UGER Quantitative Reasoning
- CAS Quantitative Reasoning
Global & Cultural Diversity
Students may fulfill this requirement with courses designated in SIS as:
- UGER Understanding Global Perspectives
- UGER Human Diversity & Commonality
- CAS Global & Cultural Diversity
Frequently Asked Questions:
All the GER and UGER categories are available as filters in Class Search in SIS. You should use the “Degree Requirements” filter on the left-hand side.
Note that if you are seeking to filter and view courses that would apply under the old GER and also those that would substitute from the new UGER, you should select ALL relevant filter categories from the list in SIS.
Please review specific substitution guidance in the above sections on this page. Some examples of how to use the SIS “Degree Requirements” search filter include:
- If you are looking for a University Seminar, search for “SAGES University Seminars” and “UGER Communication Intensive”.
- If you are a College of Arts & Sciences student looking for a course to satisfy the CAS Quantitative Reasoning requirement, you should search for both “CAS Quantitative Reasoning” and “UGER Quantitative Reasoning” to capture all the available courses.
If you are looking for a course to satisfy the CAS Global & Cultural Diversity requirement, you should search for “CAS Global & Cultural Divers”, “UGER Undrstd Global Perspects”, and “UGER Human Diversity & Commity”
Yes. The Academic Requirements Report has been modified to identify allowable UGER substitutions, in order to minimize the need for substitution forms for pre-approved coursework. If you believe that your Academic Requirement Report is displaying an error, contact your four-year advisor in Undergraduate Advising Support.
No. Substitutions of new UGER course offerings toward old GER requirements are only allowed beginning in the semester in which the course has been approved and added to the UGER list. This is because many courses are revised to meet the new UGER requirements, and therefore cannot be retroactively applied.
Students will continue to follow the general education requirements in place at the time of matriculation at CWRU. Students can declare and/or update their specific major(s) or minor(s) to a more recent Bulletin term via the appropriate form on the Undergraduate Advising Support webpage.
Contact your four-year advisor in Undergraduate Advising Support; you can find their name and contact information listed in SIS.