COLLEGE & HIGHER EDUCATION
This section will focus on 4 key areas of making the College/University Experience better for students, while providing opportunities to document learning experience, ensuring students don't fall through the cracks, improve graduation rates, lower the cost and improve educational outcomes while preparing both students and the Country for a better future. The 4 areas covered will be as follows:
1st: Standardizing General Education Requirements Nationwide for ALL Title IV Universities. Non Title IV schools are still allowed to offer whatever general education requirements they want.
2nd: Study Abroad Goals to increase the number of students studying abroad.
3rd: Foreign Language, Global Engagement & STEM Certificates.
4th: Requiring every university to offer degrees in Generic, Diversified, Liberal, Multidisciplinary Studies, Planned Program and University Studies. More information and details will be provided below.
STANDARDIZING GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS WHILE INCREASING STUDENT FLEXIBILITY
STUDY ABROAD GOALS
FOREIGN LANGUAGE, GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT & STEM CERTIFICATES:
The World is going Global, commerce is becoming more international, technology is rapidly advancing, translators are needed in larger numbers than ever before and more jobs are requiring STEM skills. Therefore to expose more people to these important areas the US Department of Education should offer Certificates to students who take X amount of hours in said area.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE CERTIFICATES: While studying all languages is important, the emphasis for the Certificates should be placed on the following 13 Foreign Languages: Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish & Vietnamese. To see the entire proposal on Foreign Language (plus Jr. High, High School and additional University areas) plus the proposed Certificate Design, please see https://www.davidmonlux.com/languages or go to the Foreign Language subsection of the Education portion of this website.
GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT: The World is going global. Below is what the requirements should be followed by the proposed certificate design.
STEM: This covers two areas which includes the general education requirements and certificates to encourage more students to take said courses.
General Education Requirements: Currently most institutions require students to take 2 course (7-8 credit hours with lab) on Science (the S in STEM), 1 course (3 credit hours) of Math (the M in STEM), ignore Engineering (the E in STEM) unless a student is Majoring/Minoring in it and for the Technology (T in STEM) requirement is one online course or non existent at most (NOT all) institutions (universities/colleges). Generally college/university students are required to take 10-11 credit hours total of STEM plus an online course. Monlux is proposing to raise the total to 15 credit hours but instead of requiring students to have a lab component of science, be forced to take a math course or waste an online course they don't need, this would allow the student the ability to have freedom of exploration in the STEM field and choose from any/all of its disciplines/offerings. If a student wanted a 100% medical focus they could do that. If a student wanted to only take Science OR Technology course s than they could do that. If a student wanted to only take Math course, then they could do that. In addition if a student wanted to focus only on engineering courses then they could do that. Also a student would have greater flexibility in customization of courses allowing them to take the courses they want/need instead of mandated top down course while increasing the total hours/exposure of Americans to STEM in a positive way to create excitement for it instead of the resentment and dread currently faced/experienced by many students. To see the idea in its entirety visit https://www.davidmonlux.com/stem or go to STEM in the education sub sections of this website.
STEM CERTIFICATES: This would be a series of 4 Certificates in each area/emphasis of STEM. Students pursuing an Associate Degree (regardless of major) could earn an Associate Certificate, Bachelor Students (regardless of major) earn a Certificate and Graduate Students could also earn a certificate. At the Associate Level for an Engineering or Math Certificate students would be required to complete 12 credit hours of any 1000/2000 (Freshman/Sophomore) level courses with a D or higher. For the Associate Level Certificate in Science (general) the credit hours would rise to 15 while it drops to 9 for the Certificate in Technology.
For the standard Certificate at the Bachelor Level, the Engineering and Math Certificate is 15 credit hours with 9 having to be completed at the upper division. The lower division courses can be passed with a D OR higher while the upper division courses must be passed with a C or higher. For the Science Certificate the same letter grade and upper division requirement remains in effect while the total hours increase to 18. For the Technology Certificate total hours drop to 12 credit hours and 6 must be at the upper division.
For the Graduate Level Certificate 9 credit hours at the Graduate level must be completed with a B OR higher in each course for the Certificates in Engineering, Math & Technology. For Science the hours go up to 12 credit hours.
To see the entire STEM plan and certificate designs/proposal visit https://www.davidmonlux.com/stem or go to STEM in the education sub sections of this website.
6 DEGREES THAT EVERY UNIVERSITY SHOULD OFFER:
1: Generic Studies: Exempts the student from general education requirements. So long as the student passes 60 OR more credit hours at the Associate Level and 120 (50 must be upper division courses) or more credit hours at the Bachelor Level of university, then the student should be awarded an Associate of Generic Studies (A.G.S.) OR Bachelors of Generic Studies (B.G.S.) so long as the GPA is 2.000 OR Higher. For a Master's Degree in Generic Studies the requirement should be 170 completed credit hours (50 must be 3000/4000 (Jr/Senior) level courses and 30 credit hours minimum of Graduate level courses all B OR Higher) with an overall GPA of 3.20 OR Higher in order to award a Master's of Generic Studies (M.G.S.) and help students get out who fall on financial problems toward the end of their degree or students wanting to forge their own path and have to promote themselves in life with a college education. This would also help students with learning disabilities.
2: Diversified Studies: Requires that all general education requirements be filled. The rest of the hours are electives for the student up to the total amount of hours required to graduate for said degree at said institution. This provides a core foundation/knowledge of background while allowing an individual to customize their path.
3: Liberal Studies requires the completion of general education requirements just like Diversified studies, however for the major requirements, it requires a student to take 1 course from 3 different disciplines not in the General Education Requirements and 2 course from a separate discipline all together at the Associate Level, is typically used for new/developing topics/disciplines at the Bachelor's level and varies widely by Graduate Program.
4: Multidisciplinary Studies: At the associate degree level it matches liberal studies. At the Bachelor level its general education requirements and the requirements of 2-3 separate Minors. At the Graduate level its usually split between 2 different graduate disciplines OR used as a cover justification for a student taking place in ground breaking research with freedom and autonomy on their research instead of letting some required class get in the way.
5: Planned Program: For students interested in a certain career field that doesn't have a specific degree program but the student can articulate and make the case for existing classes to support it.
6: University Studies: A combination of Generic and Diversified Studies. Like Diversity Studies it requires all general education requirements to be completed. Similar to generic studies the remaining courses are all chosen at the discretion of the student. However where generic studies could be a bunch of specials topic 1-2 credit hour course, each course used for University Studies must be a 3 or more credit hour class. In addition with generic studies while the GPA only has to meet the minimum requirement, in University Studies each class must be passed with a C or higher. Additional if the Degree is in arts then each course outside gen ed must come from the Arts. If the degree is in Science each course outside gen ed must come from the Sciences as compared to random mix selection with the others.