Education Abroad Program Information

UK students may participate in various types of Education Abroad programs:

University-Wide Reciprocal Exchanges:

UK has established cooperation and exchange agreements with specific universities overseas that allow UK students from any major to attend these universities for a semester or a year and pay their normal UK tuition and fees. Some exchanges also involve room and/or board, in which case UK students pay UK housing and/or meal fees in addition to UK tuition and fees, and receive room and/or board at the host institution.

Essentially, a reciprocal exchange allows a UK student to trade places with a student at a foreign university. The fees paid by the UK student are used to cover the expenses of the incoming international student and vice versa.

UK's most long-standing exchange is with the University of Heidelberg in Germany. First signed over 50 years ago, this exchange agreement includes a full scholarship for two UK students each year to attend the University of Heidelberg for an academic year without paying tuition. Heidelberg scholarship awardees also receive a small stipend for housing and meals in Germany. Interested students who are not awarded the scholarship often decide to participate in the regular Heidelberg exchange and may also apply for one of the $1,000 Education Abroad scholarships.

UK also has university-wide reciprocal exchange agreements with the following universities:

Kansai Gaidai University (Japan)

Charles Sturt University (Australia)

Lancaster University (United Kingdom)

University of Central Lancashire (United Kingdom)

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Ireland)

Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador)

College and Department Reciprocal Exchanges:

Several of UK's colleges and departments have established exchange agreements with overseas institutions specifically for their majors.

The Gatton College of Business and Economics has been particularly active in arranging exchange opportunities for B&E students. Exchange programs are available in:

• Vienna, Austria
• Dijon, France
• Grenoble, France
• Vallendar, Germany
• Seoul, Korea
• Warsaw, Poland
• Neuchatel, Switzerland

All business courses are taught in English.

For more information, visit the Gatton Education Abroad website. 

The department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) at UK has been awarded a FIPSE grant to establish the Brazil-US Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Training Consortium for Sustainable Plant and Animal Production Systems that partners UK and Iowa State University with four Brazilian universities for educational exchange at the undergraduate and graduate levels. UK BAE students in their junior year may apply to spend a semester in Brazil. Some Portuguese language student is required and will be arranged by BAE.

For more information, visit the BAE website.

ISEP Exchanges

UK is a member of the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) consortium. Our membership in this consortium enlarges the exchange opportunities for UK students to 40 different countries at over 100 overseas institutions.

One difficulty in maintaining university-to-university reciprocal exchanges is that there must be a balance between the number of outgoing UK students to that university with an equal number of incoming students from that university. The beauty behind ISEP is that we can send a UK student to University X but receive a student from University Y. This means that we can send 20 UK students to 20 different universities overseas and receive 20 international ISEP students from still 20 different universities. ISEP manages and coordinates the exchanges so that there remains a balance between incoming and outgoing students at each university.

ISEP's excellent website (www.ISEP.org) is searchable by country, area of study, and language, or any combination of these. ISEP exchanges all include room and board.

ISEP also offers non-exchange programs called ISEP Direct. For these programs, students pay a fee directly to ISEP in order to attend the foreign university. These programs are often established as an option for universities that, for a variety of reasons, have difficulty maintaining a balance of incoming and outgoing students. Occasionally the ISEP Direct programs cost less than the ISEP Exchange fee for in-state UK students.

UK-Sponsored Programs

We encourage UK students to take advantage of UK-Sponsored Education Abroad programs available, including UK faculty-led programs as well as programs created and established by UK, but taught by overseas faculty.

One of the main benefits of UK-Sponsored programs is that students register and receive credit directly for UK courses, instead of transferring foreign credit back into UK from their host university or program provider. With UK-Sponsored programs there is no need to establish UK course equivalencies and the credit will be factored into the student's GPA.

Most UK-Sponsored Education Abroad programs are established by a particular college or department in conjunction with Education Abroad at UK. We are currently in the process of developing more UK-Sponsored programs.

Consortia Programs

UK belongs to two other Education Abroad consortia, in addition to the ISEP exchange consortium:

KIIS (Kentucky Institute for International Studies): KIIS is a consortium of 19 member institutions in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. Students from these universities and colleges may participate in summer and semester Education Abroad programs, which are developed and directed by faculty from the member institutions. KIIS programs are one of the most affordable and best value non-exchange programs available to UK students.

www.kiis.org

CCSA (Cooperative Center for Study Abroad): CCSA is a consortium of 24 North American colleges and universities with study abroad programs and internships in English-speaking regions. CCSA is headquartered at Northern Kentucky University.

www.ccsa.cc

Affiliated Programs

There are hundreds of third-party providers of study abroad programs.

Some universities have a policy of requiring students to choose a program from a small list of approved programs. We have decided instead to allow UK students to participate in almost any program that fits their needs and interests. Students should be aware, though, that not all programs are accredited and eligible for transferring credit back to UK. This is why it is so important for students to work closely with their Education Abroad advisor and their academic advisor when planning their overseas study.

Occasionally, Education Abroad at UK will decide to affiliate with a particular provider if its programs are especially popular with UK students and we receive good feedback from our students relating to the academic and organizational quality of the programs. "Affiliation" can have many different meanings. Most generally it will involve some benefit to students such as extra scholarships for the programs, waiver of certain fees, and/or funds to promote Education Abroad at UK. In return, we agree to include them in any list of our affiliated providers and place a link to their website on our own. We also allow a representative to promote the affiliated provider's programs on campus.

Education Abroad at UK has signed affiliation agreements with the following third-party providers:

• CEA (Cultural Experiences Abroad) www.gowithcea.com
• IFSA-Butler (Institute for Study Abroad) www.ifsa-butler.org
• ISA (International Studies Abroad) www.studiesabroad.com
• Austalearn www.australearn.org
• SU Abroad (Syracuse University Abroad) http://suabroad.syr.edu