<p>The University of Nebraska - Lincoln has it's Comprehensive Education Plan that is composed of two main parts:</p>
<p>Essential Studies: Certain classes are grouped into the following - A. Communication, B. Math and Statistics, C. Human Behavior, D. Science and Technology, E. Historical Studies F. Humanities, G. Arts, H. Ethnicity and Gender, I. Languages - Classical and Modern.</p>
<p>The number of hours needed for each one in order to graduate depends some on your major, the college it is in, and whether you are getting a BA or BS. The courses are typically introductory courses that require few prereq's, are broad in scope, are offered regularly, and have benefit/application to students in a variety of fields.</p>
<p>Integrative Studies - students must take 10 courses with the IS designation. IS courses, in order to earn that label must demonstrate to the curriculum committee's through the syllabus that they incorporate significant levels of critical thinking, oral communication, writing, and a consideration of diversity (where appropriate b/c a chemistry class is going to have a difficult time doing that).</p>
<p>Since you asked the state of such a program...
The CEP is widely maligned at UNL b/c of it's confusing nature. Each College is allowed to apply standards above and beyond the minimum levels set by the University Curriculum Committee, as well as choose which classes earn the designation and which don't. So a course that might count as an Area G ES course for an English major may not work for an Electrical Engineering major. The College of Arts & Sciences added the foreign language requirement, while most of the others did not. There are a lot of inter - college rivalries that come into play when a course asks for an ES designation, such as the math department doesnt' believe that certain math courses offered by other departments are rigorous enough to earn an ES designation, which means A&S students cannot use those courses to satisfy the math requirement.</p>
<p>A lot of confusion also arises b/c most students really don't understand what makes a course ES or IS or no designation at all. It was revealed through a campus newpaper survey that most professors didn't know if they were even teaching an ES or IS course. Particularly the IS courses suffered a lot of profs not including one of the aforementioned requirements into their course.</p>
<p>There is a movement to revamp the CEP because of this confusion, and because it makes it difficult for students to transfer from college to college. When I was a junior, there was a plan to create one university wide list for each ES area, and then to move the IS goals to be addressed by each individual major/department. While this sounds fine and simplified, it is far more problematic than that. Professional accreditation standards, notably in Architecture and Engineering, limit what courses can be filled in certain areas. Creating a list that only uses courses "okay'ed" by all colleges would have resulted in a widespread reduction of student choice. A&S had 73 courses at the time for the Arts requirement, while Engineering only had 40 (of which none were studio art classes). </p>
<p>Because it was a University wide thing, the Curriculum Committees of all 8 colleges were required to approve the plan, and I know their was a lot of posturing, particularly by A&S (I was the student rep on the A&S Curriculum Committee), that they would veto it if the plan went through in certain versions. There was another attempt in 2005-2006, but I'm unsure of what the end result.</p>