UVA Global First Expanding Study Abroad Options
Arts & Sciences faculty voted unanimously two weeks ago to approve two new study abroad options for incoming students interested in starting their University of Virginia academic career overseas.
In addition to the UVA London First program, now in its second year of operation at Regent’s University London, first-year students enrolled in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences next fall will have the opportunity to spend their fall semester in either Shanghai or València, Spain.
The new UVA Shanghai First program at Fudan University, which was initially approved last fall, will be led by Prof. Mark Thomas, a Corcoran Department of History faculty member. Students in the program will take three classes taught by Fudan faculty, in English. They will have the option of taking Chinese as one of those three Fudan classes for world language credit at UVA. As part of the new undergraduate curriculum being piloted in the College, UVA Shanghai First students also will take two Engagements courses taught by Prof. Thomas as well as an ENWR course taught by a UVA graduate student instructor.
The UVA València First program, which builds on the success of UVA’s fall, spring and summer study abroad programs at the Universitat Politècnica de València, will offer direct-credit UVA courses for students with a pre-health focus, as well as another track for students with 3000-level Spanish proficiency who want to pursue language and cultural studies (in Spanish). Students in the program also will live with Spanish families, offering another opportunity to work on their fluency.
The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences is currently recruiting a director with extensive international experience for UVA València First. Application materials are due on November 16, 2018, and the selection will be announced prior to the end of the fall term. Questions may be addressed to Dudley Doane (982-3013; djd4j@virginia.edu) or Rachel Most (924-8873; rm5f@virginia.edu).