George Washington University has announced a strange change in its requirements for history majors. Apparently, students majoring in history will no longer be required to take up the U.S. history course.
The College Fix reported that George Washington University has changed its requirements for history majors in order to give students more flexibility. The department has removed requirements in U.S., North American as well as European history.
History majors will also no longer be required to learn a foreign language. It is entirely possible for students to major in history at the institution without taking a course on the history of the United States.
The new requirements specify that students should take at least one introductory course with the choices of American history, World History and European civilization. However, the introductory course requirement may be bypassed if a student scored a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement exams for U.S. History AP, European History AP or World History AP.
Last July, it was noted that top universities in the nation are no longer requiring history majors to take up a U.S. history course. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni warned that this would not help the ignorance of the coming generations over historical facts.
It was added that only 23 undergraduate history programs at 76 top universities require students to take up any U.S. history course. Scholars dismissed the warning, though, since they saw that most students still enroll in U.S. history classes whether or not it's required.
According to The GW Hatchet, this change is part of efforts to attract more students to take up history. Katrin Schultheiss, the chair of the history department, noted that they are trying to become more flexible and responsive to students' interests in order to recruit more majors.
The department had 153 majors in 2011. However, in 2015, the figure dropped to 75 undergraduate students and 83 for 2016.
