The National Universities Commission (NUC) directed, Nigerian Universities to introduce a program on national awareness and the program should be made compulsory for all students in Nigerian Universities. An enabling decree was promulgated in 1977 for the establishment and recognition of General Studies directorate in all Nigerian Universities. In accordance with the provision of the Decree and the recommendation of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Gombe State University has since inception in 2004 established and mounted all the prescribed General Studies Courses which are domiciled in appropriate departments of the University. The courses are coordinated centrally and examined in the semester in which they are taught by the Directorate. All the courses are computed as part of the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of every student. In view of the peculiar nature of the General Studies courses, reading manuals are prepared for each course to enable students to understand the GENS courses better. The reading manuals are unique collections put together to give a first hand, and practical over-view of General Studies. The GENS lecturers have carefully selected the topics to reflect the syllabus as contained in the course content prepared based on the National Universities Commission Minimum Bench Mark.

The central vision of the DGS is the facilitation of communication and collaboration, from a broad inter and multi-disciplinary perspective, through language study, literary sensitivity, the use of information and communication technology, and sharing the human experience which is central to intellectual, liberal, and cultural understanding

Among the objectives of the Directorate is to provide a cross disciplinary teaching and instruction which are intended to get students and graduates of Gombe State University to make substantial gain in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills. At present, the Directorate converted from the traditional mode of teaching to electronic e-teaching and learning as well as ‘E’ assessment especially the Computer Based Testing (CBT). This transformation fast track teaching and learning and make it easy and convenient for both the teachers and the students of Gombe State University.

The primary mission of the Directorate of General Studies (DGS) is cross-disciplinary teaching and instruction which are intended to get students and graduates of GSU to make substantial gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills. In general, then the Directorate of General studies seek to get its graduates to have a foundation of skills and knowledge and disciplinary grounding in broader areas than their narrow disciplinary expertise.