General Education, General College, Associate of Arts and Science

Director: Sarah Arneson

General Education

General Education in the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) provides students with transferrable skills that prepare them to gain knowledge, acquire new competencies, and broaden their perspectives so that they may better adapt to the needs of a changing society. General Education courses come from the instructional areas of Communication, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social/Behavioral Sciences. These courses help promote educational breadth while supporting occupational programming in the WTCS.

WTCS Systemwide General Education Courses, Updated June 2024 This link opens a PDF including a table with information about the systemwide general education courses as of April 2022, highlighting courses included in the UCTA with the University of Wisconsin (UW) System.

Universal Credit Transfer Agreement (UCTA) – updated Fall 2021. This link opens a PDF with the UCTA between the WTCS and the University of Wisconsin System. The UCTA provides a set of courses that are transferable between all WTCS districts and the UW System institutions and typically satisfy general education or general degree requirements. Specific information about how each course in the UCTA will transfer to a receiving institution and will satisfy general requirements may be accessed through Transferology, our online credit transfer tool. The UCTA is not intended as a stand-alone advising document. Transferology should be consulted for any updates that are made to this information since publication, as our colleges and universities continually update course equivalencies.

General College

General College courses are systemwide courses designed to provide specific “brush-up” academic content to prepare students for success in targeted General Education courses. General College courses are Aid Code 10 credit courses and financially aidable, but do not count as credits toward an Associate degree in the WTCS.

WTCS General College Courses  This link opens a PDF with a list of approved General College courses with associated course credits and instructional areas. For course descriptions, summaries, and WIDS course files, please see the General College section at the WTCS Repository.

Associate of Arts and Science

The Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees are designed to provide the first two years of a four-year baccalaureate college education. The AA degree emphasizes courses in the humanities, history, and the social and behavioral sciences. The AS degree emphasizes courses in math and science.

All 16 technical colleges have been approved by the WTCS Board, the UW Board of Regents, and the Higher Learning Commission to offer these degrees.

Refer to “Program Curriculum Credit and Range Distribution Compliance Rules” in the Related Guidance section of the ESM for information about the minimum number of credits and course subject requirements for the WTCS AA and AS degrees.