Opportunities for Study Abroad and Off Campus Study
What follows is a brief description of some of the options for study abroad and off-campus domestic study programs. Students planning to study on an off-campus program should plan to meet with a study abroad advisor and obtain a copy of the international and off-campus study forms packet from the Buckman Center for International Education, or from the Buckman Center’s website: www.rhodes.edu/2208.asp. Students intending to study off-campus during the regular academic year should also prepare with their major departments a full plan for both their junior and senior years, making certain that they can meet all major and college degree requirements.
Rhodes College reserves the right to cancel, alter or amend any part of a Rhodes program or to increase fees should circumstances make theses actions advisable or necessary.
APPLYING FOR OFF-CAMPUS STUDY
All students interested in off-campus study must meet with a staff member in the Buckman Center for International Education. The staff can assist students in researching study abroad and other off-campus study programs and can facilitate completion of the program’s application process. Students are responsible for meeting with their academic advisors to discuss program choices and course selection. Students applying to study on a Rhodes program must have a minimum grade point average of 2.00 unless otherwise specified and must be in good social and academic standing.Each student who intends to pursue off-campus study must complete the Rhodes College Off-Campus Study Approval Form, available from the Buckman Center. This form, when signed by all appropriate officials, grants approval for the program of study and, subject to general college policies regarding transfer credit, assigns appropriate credit for the academic work successfully completed.
Please see the published deadlines for all off-campus study applications in the above mentioned forms packet. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that a final transcript of the completed work is sent to the Registrar’s Office at Rhodes following completion of a non-Rhodes program.
PROGRAM APPROVAL
Students seeking to study off-campus for transfer credit must submit an Off-Campus Study Approval Form for Non-Rhodes Programs to the Buckman Center by the specified deadline for the period in which they plan to be absent from campus. They must enroll in programs which have been approved by the Director of International Programs and pursue a fulltime course of study as defined by both the host institution and Rhodes. Program approval is based upon precedent, past experience, faculty, departmental and administrative knowledge and recommendation of a program, and/or site visits, whenever possible, to the program by a Rhodes faculty member or administrator. Students and faculty are referred to the Study Abroad area of the Buckman Center web site for information on programs which are generally approved for Rhodes student use.COURSE APPROVALS
Students who earn transfer credit while enrolled in a non-Rhodes program off-campus may have that credit applied to their major and/or minor requirements or may be given elective credit. If major and/or minor requirements are to be met with courses taken off-campus, students must receive approval of that coursework from the appropriate department or program chairs in consultation with the faculty advisers. Such approval is granted only through the signature of that department or program chair on the student’s Off-Campus Study Approval Form for Non-Rhodes Programs. Elective credit will be approved by the appropriate academic officer acting on behalf of the Educational Program Committee. In most cases, this approval will come from the Director of International Programs, the Registrar, or the chair of the department or program at Rhodes in which the coursework will be pursued.While credit should be approved prior to enrollment in the courses, in some cases it may be necessary to postpone approval until course descriptions, syllabi, papers, and tests are examined. To be accepted for credit, each course must be judged comparable in terms of content and quality to a course in the curriculum at Rhodes or it must be judged to be consistent with the liberal arts and science curriculum and of a quality comparable to that expected of courses at Rhodes. Students must maintain a full-time load of academic coursework comparable to that at Rhodes in level, nature, and field, applicable to a Rhodes degree program. Course approvals must be secured prior to taking the course(s) so that the student is clear on the transferability of all courses and credits.
Should a student’s course selection change for any reason after submission of their application, substituted courses are not transferable unless approved by an appropriate department or program chair, academic advisor, or Academic Officer. Such approval must be sought immediately (i.e., e-mail, fax); copies of any such correspondence should also be directed to the Director of International Programs. Credit will not be transferred for any course for which a student has not obtained pre-approval unless retroactive approval is granted by the appropriate department, program chair, or Academic Officer after the student’s return. Such retroactive approval is not guaranteed and must be obtained before the conclusion of the first semester completed by the student upon their return to Rhodes.
FOUNDATION REQUIREMENTS AND OFF-CAMPUS STUDY
Rhodes students who study abroad in a long-term program that has been pre-approved through the Buckman Center for International Education will normally satisfy the F11 requirement, unless the program has been noted by the Center’s Director as particularly unsuitable for this purpose.In addition, students may, through appropriate course work, satisfy up to two additional Foundation requirements while abroad (or up to three additional Foundation requirements for a year-long-program). The Director of International Programs will recommend to the EPC, in consultation with the Faculty Fellow for International Programs and other faculty members as necessary, the appropriateness of the course(s) taken abroad for Foundational credit. This recommendation will be done in accordance with any guidelines that the Educational Program Committee chooses to provide.
RHODES STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS
Rhodes College’s commitment to international and cross-cultural study is most powerfully expressed in its programs abroad. The College offers a semester-long program, European Studies, in conjunction with the University of the South (Sewanee), as well as various summer programs: four-week intensive foreign language programs in late May and early June, two, two-week field courses in Honduras and Namibia, and British Studies at Oxford, a six-week program in July and August. There will be other opportunities to study abroad with professors during the summer. Credit earned in all these programs is Rhodes credit. Rhodes does not provide financial aid for summer study; however, a limited amount of scholarship assistance is available. Please see the Director of International Programs for more information.EUROPEAN STUDIES
European Studies is a seventeen-week program offered jointly by Rhodes and The University of the South (Sewanee) that takes place from mid summer through early fall. It is a full semester of study abroad and offers the unique experience of studying in a variety of locations in Europe in a special and quite different learning environment. The program begins in July with four weeks of study at The University of the South with Rhodes and Sewanee faculty. The students then travel to England where there is a ten day practicum conducted by British tutors at the Universities of York and Durham, followed by six weeks with British instructors at Lincoln College, Oxford. The program closes with five weeks of travel in Western Europe, accompanied by British tutors in Art History.SUMMER PROGRAMS
Intensive Language Study. The intensive language programs have been conducted in Paris, France; Madrid, Spain; Cuenca, Ecuador; St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tianjin, China. Accompanied by a Rhodes faculty member, students travel to a location in another country for four weeks of total immersion in the language and culture of that country.Coral Reef Ecology. Students enroll in the first of the two courses of this program, Biology 252: Coral Reef Ecology Primary Literature, and Biology 253: Coral Reef Ecology, during the Spring Semester on campus. The second half of the program is taught at the Marine Station on Roatan Island, Honduras. The intensive two-week field study gives students the opportunity to be exposed to the organisms of the reef and the modern sedimentation processes in this unique environment.
Environmental Field Studies in Namibia. Students will embark on an in-country exploration of the major environmental issues of Namibia, one of the world’s most arid and beautiful countries. Students will spend three weeks in the region, visiting different ecosystems, such as the Namib Desert, dry thornveld savannas, and the Kalahari sands. They will meet with indigenous people, NGOs, and governmental officers involved in local environmental issues. Rhino tracking and lion darting can be part of the educational experience during this field study trip. This course emphasizes critical thinking and interdisciplinary learning and is meant to challenge students’ world-view to enable them to increase their awareness and knowledge of our global society. Students will earn two Biology credit hours and a lab credit upon completion of the program. Prerequisites: Biology 130-131, 140-141 or Biology 105 Environmental Science.
British Studies at Oxford. British Studies at Oxford attracts many students, not only from Rhodes but from other colleges of equivalent standing. The program is held in July and early August at St. John’s College, Oxford, where participants live and study with British and American tutors in courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences (usually including History, English, Art History, Music, Religious Studies, and Political Science), all focusing on a period of British culture and history chosen for that year from among the following: Early and Medieval Britain; Britain in the Renaissance; Britain in the Ages of Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism; and Empire and After: Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The program’s aim is to be thoroughly interdisciplinary and to promote engagement with the physical manifestations of British culture and with contemporary debates concerning its interpretation. In addition to the seminar courses, there are workshops, recitals, lectures from distinguished British scholars, and closely-integrated study visits to some of the key sites for the period being studied. The program is structured to create opportunities for the student to explore Britain and continental Europe independently. Each seminar carries 4 credits. All students take 2 seminars and can apply for entry to a third, optional seminar.
Other Summer Programs. Rhodes professors have research and other scholarly interests which frequently yield new Rhodes summer programs. Please see the Buckman Center for International Education for the current list of other summer study abroad opportunities.
RHODES EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
Rhodes College has formal bilateral exchange agreements with The University of Antwerp, Belgium; The University of Poitiers, France; Nebrissensis University, Madrid, Spain; The University of Tübingen, Germany; the University of Aberdeen, Scotland; the University of Lima, Peru; Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa; and The Iberoamerican University in Puebla, Mexico. Students participating in one of these exchanges pay tuition and, in some programs, room and board to Rhodes, receiving financial aid as if they were at Rhodes. The payments to Rhodes meet the expenses of the exchange students from abroad during their stay at Rhodes, while Rhodes students receive tuition, or tuition, room and board overseas. Credit earned at the institution abroad is treated as transfer credit. The number of students who can participate in these exchanges with other institutions is limited.Rhodes is also a member of ISEP (The International Student Exchange Program), an organization of more than 200 colleges and universities located throughout the United States and in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and Latin America. Through ISEP, Rhodes students can participate on exchange by paying all of their fees, including room and board, to Rhodes utilizing any institutional and federal aid granted to them. Exchanges can occur in any discipline and can range in length from one academic term to one year. In most cases, ISEP participants are matriculated directly into the host institution and pursue courses with native students. Credit earned in these exchanges is treated as transfer credit.
OTHER PROGRAMS ABROAD
In addition to exchange programs and Rhodes programs, there are numerous programs offered by other colleges and universities and international agencies. Information on many of these programs can be found in the Buckman Center for International Education. Credit earned in these other programs is treated as transfer credit. Normally a student cannot earn more credit while on a full-year study abroad program than could have been earned in a regular academic year at Rhodes. Rhodes College financial aid is not available for these other programs; however, certain types of federal financial aid may be applied to these programs. Rhodes’ Buckman Scholarships for Study Abroad are available for any approved semester or year-long program abroad.DOMESTIC PROGRAMS
The Washington Semester, in association with American University in Washington, D.C., is one example of a domestic, non-Rhodes, off campus study program. Rhodes students have participated on these programs for many years in several of its academic programs. Programs are available in the following areas and receive transfer credit through the relevant department at Rhodes:American Politics (Political Science)
Economic Policy (Economics and Business Administration)
Contemporary Islam (International Studies)
Foreign Policy (International Studies)
International Business and Trade
International Environment & Development (International Studies)
International Law and Organizations (International Studies)
Justice (Political Science)
Peace and Conflict Resolution (International Studies)
Public Law (Political Science)
Transforming Communities (Urban Studies/Political Science)
The program usually includes at least one seminar in the area of study, a major independent study component culminating in a paper, and an internship in an associated agency, department, or organization. Credit earned on Washington Semester is reckoned as transfer credit.
Applications for Washington Semester are available from the Buckman Center for International Education. Students who wish to attend the Washington Semester must receive permission of the Director of International Programs. Since special financial arrangements are required for this program, students may not apply Rhodes financial aid or Rhodes scholarship funds to the cost of attendance at American University.
Science Semester at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Through a cooperative arrangement between Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Rhodes, qualified students in the natural and some social sciences may spend the spring semester of their junior or senior year in residence at the Oak Ridge laboratories engaged in seminars and in active scientific research.
Interested students should contact the Department of Physics during the academic year preceding the one in which they intend to participate.
