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For the Fall 2025, California Community College students will need to embrace new changes to the curriculum track that prepares them to transfer to either CSU or CU. IGETC and CSU GE Breadth are going by the wayside in favor of a new, singular curriculum: Cal-GETC. 

What is Cal-GETC? What are the upcoming changes? How did this all come about? 

In this article, we’ll lay out all the changes that you need to know about so you can feel confident going back to campus this fall. 

What is IGETC? 

The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) is a series of higher education courses that satisfies general education requirements for community college students transferring into either the University of California and California State University. It was initially in order “to provide a statewide, lower-division general education transfer curriculum applicable to all California Community College (CCC) students transferring to a California State University (CSU) or University of California (UC) campus.” 

Essentially, IGETC was created in order to create an easy-to-follow, organized set of courses that all California Community College students could follow and then transfer into CSU or UC. 

What is CSU GE Breadth? 

Alongside IGETC, CCC and CSU had their own general education curriculum that students could follow called CSU GE Breadth. It was a similar set of courses to IGETC with some slight differences that worked to matriculate students directly into CSU (not UC). 

So, in essence, students could follow one of two different general education curriculum paths at community college depending on the school they wanted to attend. Aspiring CSU students could follow IGETC or CSU GE Breadth. Aspiring UC students could follow only IGETC. 

From CSU GE Breadth and IGETC to Cal-GETC 

While IGETC and CSU GE Breadth have been used up until the present, the whole system actually started to get its glow-up back in 2021. At that point, the state of California decided to streamline the curriculum process so that there were no longer two curriculum paths. 

How did this change come about? 

The association that oversees IGETC is called the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates, or ICAS. California Assembly Bill 928, passed in 2021, required that ICAS “establish a singular lower division general education pathway that meets the academic requirements necessary for transfer admission to the California State University and the University of California.”  

That bill declared that students who attend California Community College and transfer to UC or USC will use a singular curriculum to transfer into UC or USC.  It was decided that by May 31, 2023, ICAS, UC, UCS, and the CCC would come up with that new, singular curriculum. ICAS called that new program Cal-GETC.

In one sense, Cal-GETC really makes the community college experience a kind of satellite campus for the four-year institutions, because students are following more or less the same curriculum patterns if they want to transfer into those schools. 

But didn’t IGETC already provide a singular curriculum? 

With the existence of both IGETC and CSU GE Breadth, the curriculum plan wasn’t exactly “singular.” The creation of Cal-GETC will pull all the general education requirements under one umbrella, streamlining the process and allowing students to keep their options open when it comes to the school into which they transfer. The Academic Senates for CSU, UC, and the CCC all agreed upon the creation of Cal-GETC to “facilitate the ease of transfer.” Back in the spring of 2023, ICAS approved a preliminary Cal-GETC structure. 

The changes will go into effect for the Fall 2025 semester. 

It’s important to note: any students with “catalog rights” prior to Fall 2025 will be allowed to continue their use of either the IGETC pathway or the CSU GE Breadth curriculum pathway for their general education certification. 

However, from Fall 2025 onward, students will have to be designated as having “achieved” or “not achieved” Cal-GETC certification before they transfer schools. It will be each individual students’ responsibility to request Cal-GETC Certification. 

What are the changes? 

Let’s take a look at the biggest changes that will affect students starting in Fall 2025: 

1. 1. The first big change, as mentioned above, is that it will be the responsibility of each individual student to request Cal-GETC Certification. 
      • Students who attend more than one California Community College should request certification from the final college they attend. 
      • If students don’t request certification from the final college they attended, it will be at that college’s discretion to certify the student or not. 
   2. If students are seeking certification for IGETC courses previous to Fall 2025 which no longer appear in assist.org, those students may file for certification with the previously accepted IGETC course in the same area of concentration under Cal-GETC. 
   3. The total number of required units is now 34. 
      • It was 39 under the CSU GE Breadth and 37–40 under IGETC. 

For students who previously used the CSU GE Breadth curriculum:

1. 1. 1. Oral Communication will now require Written Communication or English Composition as a prerequisite. 
      2. Students are now required to take only two Area 3: Arts and Humanities courses. One must be from Arts and one must be from Humanities. Drawing or Painting will not count. 
      3. Students must now take their two Area 4: Social and Behavioral Science courses from two different discipline areas. 
      4. Lifelong Learning and Self Development is going away entirely. (CSU is considering making this a graduation requirement, however.) 

 For students who previously used IGETC: 

1. 1. Oral Communications will now be a requirement. 
   2. English 1A will now be a prerequisite for Oral Communications. 
   3. Foreign languages are no longer required for transfer. Foreign language courses will become a graduation requirement, however. 
   4. Social and Behavioral Sciences will require only two courses for transfer, with each course stemming from a different discipline. 

The community college disciplines likely to be most affected by this change will be Kinesiology, Health, Nutrition, and any other disciplines that fall into Lifelong Learning and Self Development, notes Las Positas Community College. Given that this track will no longer be required for transfer, it makes sense that those disciplines could face serious drops in enrollment. 

The Social Sciences, Behavioral Sciences, the Arts, and the Humanities could also see major reductions in enrollment, as students need to take only two courses in those subject areas instead of three. 

Finally Communications departments may need to increase course offerings because of the new Written Communication prerequisite requirement. 

There are a lot of moving pieces, so if we’ve missed something, we’ll update this article as soon as possible. 

The changes we’ve outlined above all come from the published by ICAS, outlined by and , as well. 

“[Version 1.3] is intended to be both self-contained and accessible,” according to ICAS. It is rather lengthy, which is why we’re here to help you make sense of it. 

What isn’t changing? 

While students do need to pay attention to the changes outlined above, it’s worth noting that there are some areas that aren’t changing at all. 

What areas aren’t changing? 

• Area 2: Math/Quantitative Reasoning will stay the same. The requirement is one course. 
• Area 5: Physical and Biological Sciences will stay the same. The requirement is two courses and one lab: one physical science, one biological science, one lab. 
• Area 6: Ethnic Studies will stay the same. The requirement is one course. 
• The so-called “Golden 4” from CSU GE Breadth will stay the same. That means that students will still need to take Oral Communication, Written Communication, Critical Thinking, and Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning. 

Who should pay attention to these changes? 

Students who need to pay attention to these changes are any students who have previously used the CSU GE Breadth  curriculum or the IGETC curriculum and are looking to transfer to CSU or UC. Any incoming students who are planning to attend California Community College and want to eventually transfer should become acquainted with the new requirements, as well. 

What should you do next? 

Once the Fall 2025 semester starts, all students hoping to transfer need to get themselves individually certified with Cal-GETC. Remember: that’s a part of this change, too. You’ll have to individually certify that your courses meet the requirements. 

If you’re a student who started community college by following either IGETC or CSU GE Breadth, you’ll need to make sure you’re aware of the new standards and choose your classes accordingly for your upcoming semesters. The good thing is that there won’t be additional classes asked of you, but you may need to do some shuffling if, for example, you haven’t taken your Social and Behavioral Sciences courses from two different disciplines. 

The best thing to do is to make an appointment to sit down and talk with your academic adviser. That way, you’ll be aware of the courses you need to take to satisfy the new requirements—and you can identify the steps you need to take to get yourself certified with Cal-GETC. 

Additional Resources

• Best Community College Scholarships
• 50 Scholarships for African American Students – 2025
• 50 Best College Scholarships for Hispanic Students – 2025
• 50 Asian American Scholarships – 2025