They came in the year after I started, but they're courses outside your degree to do with maths, history and possibly English, I think. The reasoning at the time was that you have students getting a kinda sucky education in the high schools and then doing a tightly focused degree, so this was to broaden out your knowledge. There was something about business interests in there as well, but I forgot it under the haze of 'money grubbing scum' I was thinking at the time.