Opening public elective courses on humanistic qualities is a fundamental way to improve the humanistic quality of college students and shape their humanistic spirit. In the past decade or so, public elective courses on humanities quality in various universities have begun to take shape, and the humanities quality of college students has improved. However, there are also many problems, one of which is that the curriculum system needs to be improved. The public elective courses on humanistic literacy in universities can be divided into two categories from a functional perspective: humanistic literacy and humanistic application. Among these two categories, they can also be divided into several subcategories. At present, the teaching effect of public elective courses on humanities quality in universities is not optimistic, and effective measures and a series of countermeasures need to be taken to improve it.