General Education

The following goals of general education speak for the breadth, integration, and scaffolding of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are embedded in the purpose statement of the institute. All these goals are linked to the outcome competences of all health professions education programs at GMU (Medical expertise, knowledge for practice, life-long learning, teamwork, communication, research and innovations, inter-professional education and above all including new areas such as entrepreneurship). The goals of general education shall:

  1. Focus on the essential attitudes and behaviors that promote reflection and encourage life-long learning, wellness, and engagement with ideas, issues, and new experiences.
  2. Foster the development of critical thinking; the need to continually update their knowledge and translate the advances in medicine in the delivery of healthcare practice to the benefit of the health of the community; and a capacity for attaining individual perspective on one’s own life through self-examination and the study of others.
  3. Engage students in activities that strengthen their ability to read, write, speak, listen, and think effectively using the English language as the primary medium of instruction and communication in their professional practice.
  4. Provide students with opportunities to examine and reflect upon moral and ethical problems and issues.
  5. Enable students to use technology in order to access and manipulate information competently.
  6. Enable students to understand and appreciate the ways social and cultural differences and similarities structure human experiences and knowledge in Islamic studies, history and culture and the social or behavioral sciences. As an important aspect of general education, students shall understand multicultural dimensions of the world in which we live, especially the experiences of people of Arabic descent.
  7. Emphasize study in breadth and encourage students to explore the ways scientific inquiry in the health sciences can provide solution to the issues of health and promote wellness in their own lives and to render service to the community that they will serve in the practice of their professions after graduation.
  8. Initiate students in innovation process, enable them with basic entrepreneurship skills and make them understand the concepts of sustainability in modern word in the field of their future profession.

Upon completion of the General Education courses at GMU, the student will be able to:

  1. Communicate competently through the various written and oral formats.
  2. Evaluate and use information effectively and responsibly
  3. Apply critical thinking to make informed and logical judgments.
  4. Use quantitative methods for critical assessment of data and problem- solving.
  5. Demonstrate skill in the use of current information technology.
  6. Relate themselves to the local and global context.
  7. Practice strong values of ethical conduct and social responsibilities.
  8. Develop collaboration in diverse team settings by applying innovation and entrepreneurship skills in sustainable professional environment.
 

General Education courses

General Education outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 Islamic Culture
2 UAE Society & Cultural Diversity
3 Behavioral Sciences and Ethics
4 English Language
5 Arabic for Health Professionals
6 Biostatistics
7 Information Technology
8 Natural Sciences
9 Entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability
General Education courses are fulfilling all GenEd outcomes

General Education Program for undergraduate degrees is updated according to latest Standards 2019 and completely compliant with CAA recommendations. The list of courses and credit hours identified as General Education courses for GMU undergraduate programs are as follows:

Course Code

Course Title Credit Hours CAA standards 2019

CH

LH NLH mandatory

Other GE

ICU 101

Islamic Culture

2 2

USO 101

UAE Society & Cultural Diversity

2

2

BSE 101

Behavioral Sciences and Ethics

3

3

ENG 101

English Language

3

3

AHP 101

Arabic for Health Professionals

1

1

BIS 101

Biostatistics

3

2 1

ITE 101

Information Technology

1

0 1

EIS 101

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability

3

2 1

Variable

Natural Sciences

3

3

 

Semester Total

21

18 3

status: complete

CH – Credit Hours, LH – Lecture Hours, NLH – Non-Lecture Hours; Natural sciences are customized and delivered by each College

ICU 101 Islamic Culture

The course aims to the learner to the concepts and beliefs in Islam that form the basics of Islamic culture. The students are expected to identify the differences, compare values and preferences in Islamic culture with the existing ones. The course consists of a general review of Islam as a religion and as an approach to life. The objective of this course is to enable the student to demonstrate awareness of the effects of culture upon interpersonal communications and to interact appropriately to the culture of the colleague/patient.

USO 101 UAE Society & Cultural Diversity

This course focuses on the unique nature of the UAE society and its political, geographical, cultural, demographical, and social aspects. It highlights the Emirati perspective of contemporary global changes. This course allows the students to explore the Emirati society in global context. The students will be able to get an insight into the unique political, geographical, cultural, demographical, and social aspects of the UAE society. They will use this knowledge in their interpersonal dealings with the individual members of this community when they meet them in the work-related settings or the community. Students will develop awareness of cultural diversity advantages and disadvantages and discuss cultural, social and communication sensitivities and will be able to relate themselves to global context.

BSE 101 Behavioral Sciences and Ethics

The course is designed to give an overview of the main topics in behavioral sciences and Ethics including biological basis of behavior, mental processes, sensation and perception, learning, motivation, intelligence, human development, personality and universal ethical principles. The objective of the course is to enable the student to understand and apply the knowledge, skills and attitude developed in this course to communicate effectively. Students will learn and practice strong values, ethical conduct and social responsibilities, especially personal, academic and professional integrity while developing collaboration in diverse team settings. Students will be trained to display sensitivity to cultural, psychosocial and ethical issues.

ENG 101 English Language

The course provides an intensive instruction in the communication process focusing on the organization of ideas in well-developed expository and argumentative essays with emphasis on developing vocabulary and writing examination answers. In the process the students will be able to document their learning experiences effectively. This course prepares students to be proficient in spoken and written English. It is intended to improve way of the use of the English language as a basic tool for professional communications.

AHP 101 Arabic for Health Professionals

The course is designed for both Arabic and non-Arabic speakers to enable them to communicate in health professional settings. Many role plays will help students of basic and advanced levels at the same time to understand each other’s problems while speaking to the person with language limitations of any kind. Course will enable non-native speakers to acquire basic knowledge in greetings and simple communication with patients. All students will function as an effective team member and contribute to peer learning.

BIS 101 Biostatistics

This course presents biostatistics related to health and medical problem solving in analytical way. This course introduces the student to the principles of statistics and concept of clinical trial design and analysis. Student will be able to explain the concept of variables, data description; probability and concepts of descriptive and inferential statistics; and to demonstrate basic knowledge of application data analyses in applied health sciences. Student will be able to make decision about appropriate use of descriptive and inferential statistics according to the type of data and study design for answering a particular research question. This is foundation and prerequisite for courses which will be taken later on, such are research and evidence-based medicine.

ITE 101 Information Technology

This course aims to develop effective literature search, scientific writing and presentation skills. It intends to enable the students to understand the various types of scientific literature available, perform an effective literature search, write a review on a scientific topic, prepare effective tables and graphs and present effective oral and poster presentations. The student will be made aware about plagiarism as well. Student will be able to demonstrate skills in searching a topic using various learning resources and databases (information literacy skills).

EIS 101 Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability

This course aims to initiate final year students in innovation process, enable them with basic entrepreneurship skills and make them understand the concepts of sustainability in modern word in the field of their future profession. Course is designed in 3 parts in order to explain main principles of entrepreneurial process; to link them with concept of innovation and to engage in sustainability leadership to affect positive societal change. For future medical professionals this course has to ensure ability of medical decision making properly balanced between professional, ethical approaches on one side and finance and business on the other side.

Natural Sciences

Depending on natural science course description will be provided in details. All natural sciences’ courses have common goals to train student to identify, collect, organize, analyze, evaluate and use scientific information effectively and responsibly in the context of their profession. Students will apply critical thinking to make informed and logical judgments. While completion of natural science course student will be able to show comprehension and use of quantitative and qualitative ideas and methods for critical assessment of the data and effective problem- solving.