SBS Global Education Requirement

The Global Education Requirement pertains ONLY to SBS Bachelor of Arts majors who entered UMass prior to the Fall 2018 semester.

Landscape Architecture, Resource Economics, and Sustainable Community Development majors are exempt from the Global Education Requirement.

Purpose of the Requirement 

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences bridges the sciences and liberal arts educating students interested in the areas of culture, society, and individual behavior while promoting citizenship and global engagement. 

This college acknowledges exposure to diverse cultural perspectives is essential to becoming aware of a world beyond UMASS, a world beyond Massachusetts, and a world beyond the United States and is critical for students in the SBS majors to realize and appreciate the central importance of an international perspective.  The goal of the requirement is to put into practice the notion of the “Global Village”, a rich metaphor for a future that will require students to compete in a diverse world — a world which requires them to build bridges to cultures that are different from their own. 

The wide variety of courses from many different departments which students can choose to fulfill this requirement are meant to compliment and to supplement their language study and enable them to gain a cultural understanding to prepare students within this college to become intelligent and committed citizens of the world after they graduate with a major in SBS. 

To declare a Global Education option please contact the SBS Pathways Center (sbsadvising@sbs.umass.edu; 413-577-1057 or stop by 128 Thompson Hall.