UMUC

School of Undergraduate Studies

Bachelor's Degree Requirements

At the undergraduate level, UMUC offers the Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BS), and Bachelor of Technical and Professional Studies (BTPS) degrees, as well as 48 certificates. The Associate of Arts degree, the Bachelor of Science in general studies, and several certificates are available only to active-duty military personnel overseas and others who conform to special stipulations. The BPTS degrees are available only to students with the Associate of Applied Science degree from a community college with which UMUC has an appropriate articulation agreement.

Except for those restricted programs, current UMUC degree programs are open to UMUC students anywhere in the world. However, offerings sufficient to complete every program may not be available in every location or every format. Students should consult advisors, current schedules, and site-specific materials to determine which programs they may normally expect to complete from their geographic location.

Requirements for degrees vary according to the major and minor. The requirements that all candidates for the bachelor's degree must meet are summarized in the following sections.

Expectations

UMUC aims to produce graduates who are well prepared to be responsible citizens of a global society as well as effective participants in the complex, fast-changing world of work. A bachelor’s degree from UMUC offers a multidimensional experience, combining a solid educational foundation with cross-curricular breadth and focused study in an academic discipline. Through that experience, UMUC graduates develop and demonstrate the hallmarks of the educated person: intellectual ability, curiosity, and flexibility; fundamental skills in reasoning, analysis, investigation, and expression; understanding of the principles of scientific and intellectual inquiry; awareness of global and historical context; and civic and ethical responsibility.

UMUC demands that students meet expectations in specific core learning areas across the bachelor’s degree as well as within the major disciplines. The UMUC degree begins with basic intellectual tools, ensuring through the general education and cross-curricular requirements that students are able to

  • Demonstrate competence in effective writing and oral communication.
  • Understand information technology broadly enough to apply technology productively to academic studies, work, and everyday life; recognize when information technology would assist or impede the achievement of a goal; and adapt to the changes in and advancement of information technology.
  • Demonstrate competence in information literacy by using libraries and other information resources to locate, evaluate, and use needed information effectively.
  • Demonstrate the application of mathematical and numerical reasoning skills.
  • Demonstrate the ability to understand key concepts and principles of the natural, social, and behavioral sciences and apply these principles appropriately within their lives.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of relationships to other times and cultures, past and present, and an appreciation of major contributions of various events and individuals to human civilization; gain a chronological knowledge of the past and/or factual knowledge of a specific historical period; and study historical topics, trends, or events in the context of other disciplines to foster an understanding of issues of cause and effect.

These core learning areas are further promoted by integration throughout all programs. UMUC conducts learning outcomes assessments to measure and improve student learning in these areas as well as in specific disciplinary knowledge and skills.

In pursuit of an academic major (and minor), the UMUC student acquires mastery of a considerable body of knowledge in a specific academic subject area or group of related subjects. Each major and minor provides clearly articulated objectives for the knowledge, skills, and abilities a student acquires in completing the major.

Requirements

In general, the UMUC degree requirements that apply to a student are those that were in effect when the student began continuous enrollment in any public institution of higher education in Maryland (including UMUC). If the student has not been continuously enrolled, the requirements that apply are those in effect at UMUC when the student resumes continuous enrollment. To be considered continuously enrolled, degree-seeking students must be or have been enrolled at UMUC or another Maryland public institution of higher education and have had no more than two sequential years of nonenrollment. When a continuously enrolled student chooses to change his or her degree program, the student may be subject to all degree requirements in effect at the time of the change.

The requirements for the BA, BS, and BTPS are applicable to students who enroll on or after August 1, 2008.