Boston University
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

The BU Hub is Boston University’s University-wide general education program that emphasizes working across disciplines to prepare for a complex and diverse world. Students earn units in Hub areas to complete their general education requirements by exploring a variety of courses and innovative learning experiences while developing six essential capacities and fulfilling Hub requirements. The BU Hub offers students multiple pathways to fulfill their general education requirements, but it does not require that students take a specific set of courses, and rather encourages them to explore their interests while integrating Hub requirements with their undergraduate studies. "Scientific and Social Inquiry" is one of the six essential capacities a part of BU Hub. Through this capacity, BU students will develop a broadly informed curiosity about the workings of the physical and social worlds, as well as the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind needed to engage with key challenges facing our species and planet today, such as sustainability, immigration, and globalization. These learning outcomes involve an introduction to major concepts in both scientific and social inquiry, and the opportunity to pursue more advanced evidence-based inquiry in the social or natural sciences or at the intersection of science and society.

Launched in spring 2021, Boston University now offers BU Hub Pathways for "Social & Racial Justice" and "Environment & Society". BU Hub Pathways are curated lists of Hub courses that focus on interdisciplinary themes of global significance such as Social & Racial Justice and Environment & Society. These Hub Courses along with other courses not enlisted in the Hub Pathways are required to be selected and taken to fulfill students' general education requirements. The Hub Pathways are fully elective, and students can choose to incorporate as many courses within a particular Hub Pathway as they wish.

The Hub Pathway in Social & Racial Justice allows students to explore the historical grounding of various forms of social and racial inequality, themes of intercultural understanding, and contemporary activism aimed at making the world more equitable and inclusive.

The Social & Racial Justice Hub Pathway provides students the opportunity to fulfill general education requirements by taking Hub courses across a variety of disciplines that seek to better understand systemic inequalities as well as the efforts needed to realize a more just society. Students who select Hub courses in this Pathway will have more opportunities to articulate and critically examine their own beliefs and opinions on such topics as human diversity, identity, race and antiracism, class, gender, sexuality, intersectionality, power, and social equity and inclusion, among others.

URL: https://www.bu.edu/hub/hub-courses/bu-hub-pathways/bu-hub-pathway-social-racial-justice/

The Hub Pathway in Environment & Society allows students to engage with themes of human-environment interactions; the relationship between climate change and society; environmental policy; sustainable energy and development; earth and environmental sciences; and environmental humanities, among others.

The Environment & Society Hub Pathway provides students with the opportunity to fulfill general education requirements by taking Hub courses across a variety of disciplines that seek to understand and ensure a sustainable environment and society that supports human activity on our planet, so that we might “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

URL: https://www.bu.edu/hub/hub-courses/bu-hub-pathways/bu-hub-pathway-environment-society/

With assistance from Institutional Research (IR), we collected the metrics on graduates who earned their degree and identified which of those graduated from programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability (see the list of programs below).

This represents FY2022 BU Metrics.

Bachelors/undergraduate degree programs:
B.A. in Environmental Analysis & Policy
B.A. in Earth & Environmental Sciences
B.A. in International Relations, Environment & Development Track
B.S. in Engineering, concentration in Energy Technologies
B.A. in Biology, specialization in Ecology & Conservation Biology
Minor in Sustainable Energy
Minor in Environmental Analysis & Policy
Minor in Earth & Environmental Sciences

B.A. / M.S. programs:
Energy & Environment
Remote Sensing & Geospatial Sciences

Masters:
M.S. in Energy and Environment
M.A. in Earth and Environment
M.A. in Global Development Economics
M.A. in Global Policy
M.A. in Geography
Master of City Planning
Master of Urban Affairs
M.S in Population Health Research, Climate and Health Specialization
M.S in Population Health Research, Global Health Specialization
M.S. in Remote Sensing & Geospatial Sciences
MBA, Energy and Environmental Sustainability Concentration

Certificates:
Applied Sustainability Graduate Certificate
Advanced Graduate certificate in Biogeoscience
Urban Policy & Planning Graduate Certificate
Certificate in Environmental Hazard Assessment
MPH Context Certificate: Global Health

Doctoral:
PhD in Biology with specialization in Ecology, Behavior, and Marine Biology
PhD in Environmental Health
PhD in Earth & Environment
PhD in Earth Sciences
PhD in Geography

This represents FY2022 BU Metrics.