The Bachelor of General Studies (Applied Sciences) is a proposed generalist degree of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Simon Fraser University. It allows students to pursue a broad applied degree with advanced studies in Communications, Computing Science, Engineering Science, Kinesiology and/or Resource and Environmental Management without specialized emphasis in any one particular area.
This is a nonspecialist degree program that offers students a broad education with an applied orientation.
Students must complete 28 credit hours of upper division Applied Sciences courses (CMNS, CMPT, ENSC, KIN, or REM) subject to the following constraints.
For the purposes of this requirement, MACM courses are counted as CMPT courses.
Students must complete 120 credit hours overall for the degree, including 45 upper division credit hours. A 2.00 graduation GPA is required as described under Graduation Requirements in the General Information section of this calendar.
A limited number of spaces will be made available in this program each year. Applicants should contact the Office of the Dean of Applied Sciences for more information.
With the recent introduction at SFU of direct entry by Faculty, there is now a need to add a general studies degree in the Faculty of Applied Sciences to complement the Bachelor of General Studies in the Faculty of Arts and the General Science program in the Faculty of Science. The Bachelor of General Studies (Applied Sciences) allows students enrolled in the Faculty of Applied Sciences to have an option for generalist education in the event that they do not wish to pursue, or do not qualify for, a specialist program.
The program design meets University norms for general degree requirements and is comparable to the double minor structure (30 credit hours, typical) of other general degrees. However, the specification of 28 upper division credit hours from Applied Sciences, without restriction to two minors, allows participation by Engineering Science and by Resource and Environmental Management, neither of which offer a minor credential. Furthermore, this approach is somewhat more flexible than the two minors approach. Another option would be to specify one minor in Applied Sciences and allow one minor in some other discipline possibly outside Applied Sciences, but this structure would overlap with the existing general degrees in Arts and Science.
The 28 credit hours with at most 16 hours in one discipline is structured to allow various combinations of 3 credit hour and 4 credit hour courses. For example, 4 4-credit hour courses in CMNS plus 4 3-credit hour courses in CMPT could be used. Alternatively, 1 4-credit hour course in CMNS, 1 3-credit hour course in REM, 4 3-credit hour courses in KIN and 3 3-credit hour courses in CMPT could be taken.