General Education Requirements for Transfer Degrees (AA, AGS, AGEC)

Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC)

Gila Community College subscribes to the common structure for a transfer general education curriculum agreed upon by Arizona public community colleges and universities. This agreement provides students with the opportunity to build a general education curriculum that is transferable upon completion without loss of credit to another Arizona public community college or university. This agreement is called the Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC). All courses used to satisfy Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC) requirements are transferable as elective credit or better to all Arizona public universities. Gila Community College has established Associate degree programs that satisfy the AGEC. It is in a student’s best interest to complete the AGEC at GCC before transferring to an Arizona university. The AGEC is also a stand-alone GCC certificate. When a student has completed the AGEC certificate, GCC will certify this on the student’s academic transcript. 

There are six (6) categories in the AGEC from which students are required to take a total of 32 to 35 credits. The categories and required credit ranges are as follows:

1. Written and Oral Communication (6-10 credits; the first 6 must be composition/technical writing, and the remaining 3-4 credits can be in communication studies or languages)
2. Arts & Humanities (6-9 credits)
3. Quantitative Reasoning (3-4 credits)
4. Natural Sciences (4-8 credits)
5. Social & Behavioral Sciences (6-9 credits)
6. Institutions of the Americas (3 credits)

Should a student elect not to complete the AGEC certificate at GCC, they will not be afforded the same transfer status as those who do. Instead of courses being packaged together as the AGEC certificate, individual courses will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis by the university to which the student transfers. 

General Education Requirements for Transfer Degrees 

The two transfer degrees GCC students can earn are:

• Associate of Arts (AA)
• Associate of General Studies (AGS)

The AGEC certificate described in the previous section is designed to fulfill the lower division general education requirements of liberal arts majors (e.g., Social Sciences, Fine Arts, Humanities), business majors, and mathematics and mathematics based-science majors. Completing the AGEC certificate at GCC before transferring fulfills the lower division general education requirements of the corresponding baccalaureate degree at each of the three state universities. Some majors, particularly in the professional fields, have significant prerequisites and/or program requirements that will not transfer within the General Education program. If a student has selected a major that is not listed in the GCC catalog, they should carefully consult the catalog and/or curriculum transfer guide (located at www.aztransfer.com) of the university to which they plan to transfer and the Course Equivalency Guide (https://aztransmac2.asu.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ATASS.woa/wa/SUNMatrix) before registering for GE courses. Obtaining assistance in this process from an advisor at the university to which the student plans to transfer is strongly recommended. GCC faculty advisors and academic advisors can also assist. Students must meet the General Education requirements by selecting appropriate courses from the required program areas. In some cases, a degree program may require a student to select specific courses rather than choose from the list of approved GE courses. Required courses for each GCC curricula are listed in the curriculum section of the catalog under the heading General Education Requirements.

AGEC and Transfer (AA, AGS) Course Options