Until recently, the Humanities Unit of the School of General Studies offered two courses-Humanities I and Humanities II – that focused on the crises of development in the developing world, with Nigerian as a case study. Issues were approached from a humanistic perspective. Since time changes and we must change with time, the National University Commission (NUC), via a “Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards for Undergraduate Programmes in Nigeria Universities” of April 2007, called for adjustments in the General Studies Programme that necessitated a ‘returning’ of the courses to enable students be better equipped for societal and functional relevance. Due to this regulation, Humanities I was replaced with Logic, Philosophy and Human Existence, while Humanities II was replaced with Nigerian Peoples and Cultures.

Logic, Philosophy and Humanities Existence was introduced to enable the students develop critical and analytical skills and learn how to apply such skills in assessing and grappling with questions of human existence; these cutting-edge skills are in high demands by employers of labour. Nigerian Peoples and Cultures was designed to assist the students appreciate the nature and dynamic structure of cultures in a rapidly changing society like required of well-grounded, morally-balanced, and mature graduates.

The modifications in the programmes of the Humanities Unit are consistent with the rationale for the establishment of General Studies Programme at University of Nigeria Nsukka. A cardinal part of this rationale is the belief system of man i.e. the sum total of the propositions a man takes to be true and which informs his/her lifestyle. While in Logic, Philosophy and Human Existence the student expectedly develops the intellectual skills of critical and analytical thinking and learns how to apply it to human existential matters, in Nigerian Peoples and Cultures a students is introduced to the diverse belief systems in Nigeria, particularly as they are expressed in various forms such as history, music, language, paintings, religion, archeology/tourism et cetera.