Southern Miss Reduces General Education Requirements

University cuts GEC credit hours from 35 to 30 in upcoming academic year

Apr. 1, 2026 at 6:20pm

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The University of Southern Mississippi will be making several changes to its General Education Curriculum (GEC) requirements in the upcoming academic year, reducing the total required credit hours from 35 to 30. The changes will affect the number of required science, humanities, and lab courses.

Why it matters

The GEC changes are intended to help students graduate on time by providing more flexibility in their course schedules, especially for those who change majors or are in programs that require more than 120 total credits to graduate.

The details

Under the new GEC requirements, students will only need to take 6 credit hours of science classes (down from 8) and will no longer be required to take a 1-credit lab course unless their major specifically requires it. The humanities requirement has also been reduced from 9 to 6 credit hours, with world literature and history classes no longer mandatory electives. The two required humanities courses must still come from different prefixes.

  • The GEC changes will take effect in the upcoming 2026-2027 academic year.

The players

Russ Willis

The associate provost for student success at the University of Southern Mississippi, who stated the changes are intended to help students graduate on time.

Gbadeoluwa Adedigba

A student majoring in polymer science who said the reduced GEC requirements will help students in programs that require more than 120 credits to graduate without overworking themselves.

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What they’re saying

“We have been looking into making these changes for a few years now because we want to make sure that students stay on the right track to graduation at 120 hours. We decided to eliminate five hours so it will give students some flexibility, especially in those majors where required classes need more than 120 credit hours.”

— Russ Willis, Associate Provost for Student Success

“My major currently requires 128 credit hours just to graduate. Removing those GEC classes will help students graduate on time without overworking themselves.”

— Gbadeoluwa Adedigba, Student, Polymer Science Major

What’s next

The University of Southern Mississippi will begin implementing the new GEC requirements for the 2026-2027 academic year.

The takeaway

The reduced GEC credit hours at the University of Southern Mississippi aim to provide students, especially those in majors requiring more than 120 total credits, with greater scheduling flexibility and a clearer path to on-time graduation.