Sukhwant Jahj, director of University Studies at Portland State, said that offering a balanced education is the goal of every institution of higher learning. What makes PSU stand out, said Jhaj, is its unique approach to general education.
University Studies, PSU’s four-year general education program, is required of all students, except those enrolled in Liberal Studies or the Honors Program.
Forming the foundation of the University Studies program is the Freshman Inquiry, a year-long interdisciplinary course that seeks to engage and expose students to a variety of subjects integrated in to one course, such as English, science or math.
“[Freshman Inquiry] provides an important bridge to the university, both its academic culture and its unique community,” said Freshman Inquiry coordinator Ann Fallon. “Students have an opportunity to get to know people from a variety of backgrounds and who hold a wide array of opinions about the world.”
Freshman students also sign up for a peer mentor section designed to compliment their Inquiry course, where volunteer student mentors aid new students in their initial collegiate endeavors.
Once students reach the sophomore level, they select three different Sophomore Inquiry courses, with each course being the prerequisite for a similarly linked upper division cluster course.
Students who complete the Sophomore Inquiry must select their Junior Clusters based on the classes they’ve already completed. Every student receives credit for their University Studies requirements only for classes taken in the same cluster and not in their major.
Students who transfer to PSU often have to take a transfer transition course, which brings them up to speed on the goals of the University Studies program as well as the graduation requirements.
The final piece of the University Studies program is the Senior Capstone, a problem-solving project that engages students in the Portland community.
“What we want to see is students taking what they’ve learned as undergrads and applying it to a real community issue,” said Jahj.