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State Examples
Most common core agreements are statewide collaborations on a full general education core curriculum or an alternative transfer block of courses that facilitate student movement between institutions. They generally seek to establish a number of courses from a select number of fields that will satisfy general education requirements across state higher education systems. Most of the examples below are not specific to any particular majors. South Carolina and Arizona, however, have transfer blocks that do apply to certain majors.
Arizona
In 1997, Arizona public community colleges and universities agreed upon a common structure for the Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC), based on a previous articulation agreement, the Transfer General Education Core Curriculum (TGECC). The latter curriculum attempted to go beyond course-by-course articulation by creating a block of 41 semester units of lower-division general education coursework to ensure transfer of a substantial number of credits for students who had not selected a major or university. The AGEC provides students attending any Arizona public community college with the opportunity to build a general education curriculum that is transferable upon completion without loss of credit to another Arizona public community college or university. The AGEC, however, is more specific and comes in the form of three blocks: one for liberal arts majors, one for business majors and one for students who intend to transfer into majors with more stringent mathematics and mathematics-based science requirements. All three blocks are 35 semester-credit lower-division general education blocks that fulfill general education requirements. Students completing the AGEC still must fulfill lower-division program requirements and prerequisites within their college and major and minor areas of study.
California
The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) is a statewide policy to simplify transfers for community college students in California. Developed in 1991, it consists of a comprehensive pattern of courses that community college students may complete to satisfy general education requirements at campuses of both the University of California and California State University Systems. The IGETC ranges from 34 to 39 semester credits, depending on transfer destination.
Georgia
Georgia’s core curriculum, developed in 1996, is based on a common set of principles and a framework that ensures the core completed at one Georgia system institution is fully transferable to another system institution, as long as the student does not change majors. Each institution’s core consists of 60 semester hours and includes 22-23 credits of "institutional options" and courses related to the program of study. These agreements are limited, however, to community colleges and universities governed by the State Board of Regents and are not automatically extended to courses taken at one of the technical colleges operated by the Georgia Department of Adult and Technical Education.
Illinois
One of the most extensive examples of statewide academic collaboration is the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI). Launched in 1993, the IAI emphasis is on involving two- and four-year faculty as equal partners in reviewing and developing articulation agreements. The initiative also created a statewide general education core curriculum, which consists of 12 to 13 courses selected from five fields. Students who take the core courses can be confident their credits will satisfy the general education requirements at the institution to which they transfer.
New Mexico
In 1995, New Mexico established a lower-division general education common core. It consists of a list of 35 credit hours to facilitate transfer for students who have not yet selected a major field of study for their degree. These courses form the base around which most degree programs are built and are guaranteed to transfer between all New Mexico campuses and to apply toward graduation requirements for most degree programs. (Also see www.highereducation.org/reports/transfer/transfer14.shtml.)
South Carolina
South Carolina has statewide agreements that guarantee transfer blocks taken at any of the state’s two-year public institution will be accepted toward baccalaureate- degree requirements at all four-year public institutions in relevant four-year degree programs. The statewide articulation agreement includes 86 courses approved by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. There are general education transfer blocks for five major areas, including teacher education (early childhood, elementary and special education).
Texas
All public institutions are statutorily mandated to have a minimum of 42 semester hours in an institutionally defined core curriculum. If a student successfully completes the curriculum at an institution of higher education, he or she may transfer that block of courses to any other institution of higher education as a substitute for the receiving institution’s core curriculum. Receiving institutions and specific majors may require some additional courses beyond the minimum core. The state coordinating board reviews and approves each institution’s core curriculum every five years.
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