General Education Overview

General Education is a suite of 15-point courses that you choose from as part of your undergraduate degree. The selected course(s) will be in a subject that sits outside your main field of study.

Courses in the programme are designed to:

• Complement and broaden your education
• Give you a greater understanding of New Zealand and its place in the world
• Provide an opportunity to mix with students in different programmes
• Expose you to cross-disciplinary research
• Provide you with a broader range of skills and understanding to complement your specialist knowledge

Courses in the General Education programme are organised into lists called Schedules. There are two main types of schedules – Open Schedule and Faculty Schedule.

• Open Schedule: courses available to all students in all programmes
• Faculty Schedule: courses available to students in specific programmes

You select courses from either the Open Schedule and/or your degree's Faculty Schedule. 

Courses in the General Education programme are identifiable by the 'G' suffix in their course code, for example HISTORY 103G. If you wish to use a course to meet your General Education requirement, be sure that it has the 'G' suffix. You can contact Student Hubs for enrolment assistance.

The number of General Education courses you will need to complete depends on what you study and the year you started studying. A limited number of programmes in specific years do not have a General Education requirement. As this page only provides an overview, you will need to check the University Calendar and refer to the programme requirements of your enrolment year to know your General Education requirements.

Typically, if you are studying a Bachelors programme, you will need to take either 15 or 30 points of General Education; and if you are studying a conjoint Bachelors programme, you will need to take 15 points of General Education.

You may be eligible for a General Education exemption if you are transferring your undergraduate studies from another university. See exemptions and regulations for more details.

If you have questions about how to meet your General Education requirement, you can contact Student Hubs.

Transdisciplinary Futures are exciting new additions to the General Education programme.

Transdisciplinary learning brings together students and staff from different academic disciplines to think of local responses to address complex societal challenges.

These courses will equip you with the skills, mindset, and awareness of knowledge systems needed to tackle real-world issues that require diverse expertise and perspectives. 

You can check out the five new Transdisciplinary Futures courses available as part of the General Education Open Schedule.

You can find out more about the university’s unique educational experience.