At New Jersey City University, primary responsibility for developing the ideas and methodologies to communicate within a disciplinary community lies with the major department. The purpose of the General Studies Program is to provide a broader context for the discipline. The General Studies Program offers exposure to the ideas essential for students to understand how their work in the major is part of a larger range of human concerns.

With these ideas, students can make connections across the liberal arts. General education helps specialists learn to communicate with others in different scholarly communities and enables them to understand problems outside their areas of study. By promoting the integration, synthesis, and application of knowledge, general education provides individuals with an awareness of their role in a diverse culture and highlights their responsibilities to the larger community.