Johnson & Wales Overhauls General Education Requirements To Add Hands-On Learning

Johnson & Wales University has redesigned its Core Curriculum. General education classes will now be more hands-on and relevant to students across all majors. The overhaul comes more than a decade after the last revision and impacts undergraduate students at both the Providence and Charlotte campuses.

The redesign introduces optional Guided Journeys that help students pick courses through themed areas like Food Studies, Media, Entertainment & Popular Culture, Global Citizenship, and Health, Medicine & Wellness. A culinary student could take courses on food in film and literature, food writing, and the politics of food while meeting credit requirements.

By 2026, all undergraduate face-to-face courses at the institution will include at least one active learning component through an initiative called REAL. REAL stands for Reimagining Experiential and Applied Learning. The program uses the Kolb Learning Cycle model to link course content with career skills sought by employers.

"The overarching connective tissue of experiential learning is something we want Johnson & Wales students to experience no matter what course they're taking," Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences Michael Fein told Charlotte Business Journal. "Whether it's a course in the core or whether it's in their major."

Active learning examples include site visits, debates, simulation tools, and project-based work with industry partners. In one Food, Philosophy, and Religion course, students design an interfaith banquet menu that must be cost-conscious and include dishes that attendees can eat without violating religious rules. Students wrestle with real constraints.

The New England Commission of Higher Education requires that a certain number of credits be dedicated to general education. A committee of faculty and staff on both campuses worked on the revamp after Provost Richard Wiscott charged them with giving the curriculum a stronger sense of relevance. They succeeded.

Core courses are now organized around attributes like communicating, experiencing, interacting, measuring, exploring, and connecting rather than traditional departments. "I think these terms resonate better with students," Associate Professor of Chemistry Chris Roy told Charlotte Business Journal, "and also give them a better idea of what they'll come away with, what sort of transferable skills they'll learn."

Colleges outside of Arts & Sciences can now apply to have their courses included in the Gen Ed core. The university enrolled more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students as of 2026. Numbers remain strong.