The philosophy and content of both undergraduate business programs and undergraduate general education programs have developed since their inception early in the last century.  This evolution is accompanied by several ongoing disagreements among business practitioners, business academics, and non-business academics about the purpose, design, and outcome of general education course requirements in undergraduate business programs.

After presenting their overview of key issues, the authors propose a way business programs can  improve business-general education curriculum integration. The authors’ proposed undergraduate business programs  1) adopt student skill development as the unifying central purpose of general education and  business core courses , 2)  identify key student skills to be developed ,  3) align general education requirements with student acquisition of key skill fundamentals, and 4) advance student development  of key skills in  business core curriculum courses. This proposal addresses several aspects of ongoing debates, reflects recent scholarship on skills emphasized by business academics and practitioners, and fits with current practices in curriculum mapping, assessment of student learning and program review.  Examples are provided.