The Education Abroad Program will partner with six new study abroad programs for 2014-15
The University of California’s Education Abroad Program announced six new study abroad programs for 2014–15. Two new programs in England, one at McGill University in Montreal and a public health program in the Dominican Republic headline the new offerings, which EAP’s office in Goleta, Calif. rolled out last week.
“We tried to develop programs that are different from what we’ve offered in the past,” UCEAP Regional Director for Asia and Africa Programs Mary McMahon said. “We looked to see what areas weren’t offering programs and see what high-quality schools we could partner with.”
One of two new programs in London, UCEAP’s partnership with University College London, is a general study-abroad program for all majors. The other, a University of California partnership with Sotheby’s Institute of Art, will focus more on exposure to the fine arts through museum trips and auctions.
UCEAP will also offer a service-study program in the Dominican Republic for health and pre-med students, a French language program at McGill, a sustainable-engineering program in Munich and a five-week program in Indonesia that will be taught by UC Santa Cruz sociology professor Steve McKay.
“[UCEAP] reinstated the Indonesia program after a several-year absence,” McMahon said. “However, we suspended one of our smaller programs in Germany because of a drop in student interest.”
In addition to the new programs, a general study abroad merit scholarship for students doubled the amount of funding it would allocate for 2013–14. The scholarship, one of several that all UC students can apply for, raised its total budget from $500,000 to $1 million.
McMahon, who led the new programs workgroup for UCEAP, also said that she expected enrollment in programs announced last year, like a program at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and University College Dublin to increase as word of mouth from alumni begins to spread.
“Programs are slow to roll out, but we find that the biggest influence is student hearing from another student coming back from the program, she said. “Peer influence is the greatest of all.”