OVERVIEW OF THE GENERAL INSTITUTE REQUIREMENTS (GIRs)

Throughout its modern history, the Faculty of MIT, through its governance and regulations, has required that every student receiving a Bachelor of Science degree satisfactorily complete an approved course of study that includes a common program of General Institute Requirements. The Faculty has from time to time modified these requirements -- most recently to recognize the new centrality and independent intellectual structure of contemporary biology, to establish the structure of required study in humanities, arts and social sciences, and to implement a new Communication Requirement.

It has been largely through the General Institute Requirements that the Faculty has affirmed its own unity of educational purpose, defined the essence of an MIT education, and given it a common basic structure.

For more information about the current General Insitute Requirements, refer to the MIT Bulletin and the Rules and Regulations of the Faculty.