Opportunities for Study Abroad and Domestic Off-Campus Study

Opportunities for off-campus study, both domestic and international, are coordinated by the Buckman Center for International Education. Rhodes encourages its students to study off-campus through the programs it administers or through programs administered by other institutions. Off-campus study, whether domestic or international in scope, requires substantial prior planning. Students interested in pursuing such a course of study should formulate and clarify their plans well in advance.

What follows is a brief description of some of the options for off-campus study programs. Students planning to study on an off-campus program should plan to meet with a study abroad advisor and obtain the Off-Campus Study Application from the Buckman Center for International Education’s website: www.rhodes.edu/buckmancenter. 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 these 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 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 Off- Campus Study Application, available at www.rhodes.edu/2208.asp. This application, 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, instructions, and checklists in the above mentioned website. 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 Application 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 offcampus 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 Application. 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 preapproved 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 Foundations Curriculum Committee (FCC) 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 provides.

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). See below for more information about European Studies. Rhodes also offers a six week summer program at St. John’s College within Oxford University, as well as other summer programs which vary year to year. Please inquire with the Buckman Center for a current listing of summer program offerings. 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.

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; Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey; 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.