General Education (Gen Ed) FAQ

[sunny]

I think its about time we have one of these.

What are gen eds?
General education are a special type of subjects that you must do while you're at UNSW. As the name suggests, gen eds are meant to provide you with "general education" - that is, teach you topics that are outside your discipline to help expand your knowledge, and this is a requirement for graduating at UNSW. Read the myUNSW overview here

What gen ed subjects are there?
Gen ed offerings vary session to session. But there will always be gen eds offered in each session (summer, session 1, winter and session 2). You can search for gen ed subjects in myUNSW to check their avaliability for a given session, or you can check in the Virtual Handbook gen ed section

How many gen eds do I have to do?
Usually, you must do 12uoc of gen eds in your program. In most programs you start doing your gen eds in second year. You should check your program plan to see when you should be doing your gen eds. Some double degrees do not have a requirement to do gen eds provided the two degrees in the double degree are "different" enough. Check with your program plan for specifics.

How long do gen eds go for?
The "out of session" gen eds (ie, summer and winter session) usually go for only one or two weeks - in session gen eds can go for the full 14 weeks (sometimes less)

How hard are gen eds?
Most gen eds are not meant to be hard, and you would have try fairly hard to actually fail one, but thats not to say you should not put effort into them. Gen eds count towards your WAM like normal subjects, and have assessments just like your normal subjects.

What restrictions are there on gen eds?
There are restrictions on what kind of gen eds you can do. Generally speaking:

• You can only do a maximum of 3uoc of gen eds from your own faculty
• You cannot do more than 6uoc from any other single faculty
• Sometimes your faculty may allow you to substitute a mainstream subject for your gen eds

Sometimes faculties and schools have their own further restrictions on what you can or cannot do. You can find this information in your program plan, school or faculty website, or the gen ed handbook. For example, FCE students cannot do any FCE gen eds, and CSE students cannot do CSE offered gen eds.

When do I have to enrol in a gen ed by?
For in session gen eds, you enrol in them as you would normally do for your other subjects. For out of session gen eds, you must check when the gen ed starts, and enrol in myUNSW (like you normally do) before the enrolment deadline for that session. Enrolment deadlines are given in the myUNSW Key Dates page, and are released when closer to the deadline. Doing your gen eds in summer session at the start of the year can help you reduce your workload during the year. eg, if you do all 6uoc of your gen eds for 2006 in summer session, you will have 6uoc less to do during the year in session 1 and session 2. Read more about deadlines here

I can't find any information on the gen ed I want to do!
Generally speaking, gen eds are not very well advertised, if you want more information you should contact the school or lecturer that runs the gen ed.

How do I pay for gen eds?
Just like normal subjects, you pay for them before as the notices come up on myUNSW. The deadline itself should be around the starting times of the gen ed for out of session classes. They can be paid by HECS like normal subjects.

[redslert]

nice work sunny!

[Eagles]

When can I do a gen ed?
After you have passed 48UOC. (for commerce peeps)

[Survivor39]

Same in Medical Science and Advanced Science. You do them in first year,

[J0n]

^^

In compsci you can do a gened whenever you want

I did some in first year

Cool! Can we do level 0 courses, e.g. GENT0804, or does it have to be a level 1 course?

[McLake]

Cool! Can we do level 0 courses, e.g. GENT0804, or does it have to be a level 1 course?

The first number for Gen Ed courses dosn't mean anything, there are no "levels" for Gen Eds ...

[J0n]

Ooh, nice.

[sikeveo]

Can we do them in first year?

[sunny]

Scroll up and read the 3rd and 4th posts.

[sikeveo]

Are they good wam boosters?

[*sarah*]

when can we start applying for summer session gen eds? and where abouts?
thanx

[sunny]

Deadlines have not been released yet. But when they do they appear in the Key Dates page on myUNSW. You would enrol like you normally do on myUNSW.

[ricenoodles]

I plan on taking 2-3 geneds over this summer session. Just wondering, when do we get our marks for our gened courses? do we get the results at the beginning of semester 1 or do we get it in the transcript at the end of semester 1?

[sunny]

Since gen eds are usually not very well organised, and depending on how the lecturer does it, you'll usually get your results sometime after the course, sometimes even when session 1 starts depending on when the gen ed was run. But it will appear under "Summer Session" on your transcript in myUNSW.

[sunny]

What's this "WAM" thing?

Weighted Average Mark - its what people mean when they talk about their average. You can find yours in myUNSW.

[Survivor39]

Weighted Average Mark - its what people mean when they talk about their average. You can find yours in myUNSW.

How do they calculate courses that are only graded base on Pass or Fail?
Will the UOC be counted in the WAM? Or completely excluded?

[sikeveo]

in engineering the class of honors you graduate with depends on your wam (EE has their own wam which applies a higher weighting depending on the course (4th year courses higher than first year, etc.), of which 75+ will get you first class hons

in undergrad science you might need a wam of ~65 to get into honors year (physics), not sure on other faculties/schools but it would probably be similar

in the bsc, u can also get honours based on ur wam. 85+ for first class div 1 honours etc....

[Minai]

Hm... my course requires a Distinction average in 2nd and 3rd year, so I guess WAM isn't the deciding factor (since it covers 1st year, which is irrelevant for Honours).

Woah that's pretty tough...do you have a scholarship?

[Dumsum]

I have a question. I've been looking through the GedEd list and there are quite a few that I'm interested in. Are we allowed to enrol in a lot, but only have a select few actually count for anything, even if it means doing them in winter or summer?

[sunny]

From what I understand, if you do more than your program's requirement, they won't count, and will not be covered by HECS.

[Dumsum]

From what I understand, if you do more than your program's requirement, they won't count, and will not be covered by HECS.

Hmm ok, thanks for that.

[whiteeagle]

[quote=sunny]I think its about time we have one of these.

What restrictions are there on gen eds?
There are restrictions on what kind of gen eds you can do. Generally speaking:

• You can only do a maximum of 3uoc of gen eds from your own faculty
• You cannot do more than 6uoc from any other single faculty
• Sometimes your faculty may allow you to substitute a mainstream subject for your gen eds

Says, I'm a COFA student.
I only need to do 3uoc of Geneds at COFA, do I?
Can I study the nest 5uoc with Faculty of the built environment and the rest with Faculty of Law?
I'm confused. It just doesn't sound right.

[Minai]

You can do 3CP from COFA if you want, but you dont have to.
Most Gen-Eds are 3CP you'll have to do four Gened subjects - ie 2 from FBE and 2 from Law

[whiteeagle]

You can do 3CP from COFA if you want, but you dont have to.
Most Gen-Eds are 3CP you'll have to do four Gened subjects - ie 2 from FBE and 2 from Law

Thanks, Minai.:wave:
I understand it now.

[Rekkusu]

Atm I'm doing science bach, though in the suggested plan for my major, they state that you need choose 1 gen ed course worth 3 UOCs, though if I choose say another outside course - i.e JAPN1001, am I then exempt from doing a Gen ed course?

Additionally, the major that I'm heading into, states that I also need to do 12 UOCs worth of electives in addition to the core courses that I need to do...but can I choose other courses, rather than just choosing from their set list of electives?