STUDY ABROAD FOR CHEMISTRY MAJORS

US-EU Undergraduate Exchange Program in Chemistry

Duke University has joined with 14 other US universities in an exchange program with 15 European universities which is focused on undergraduates in Chemistry and related sciences. The goal is to promote study abroad among chemistry majors, who have found study abroad difficult to consider in the past because of the structure of their curriculum and the number of required courses, as well as the much different structure of science curricula in European universities. In addition, the program will encourage comparable numbers of European students to come to Duke and is another facet in the effort to "internationalize" the University.

Each university in the consortium, both in the US and Europe, has prepared a special study abroad/foreign student exchange brochure describing in detail its Chemistry Department faculty and curriculum, including detailed descriptions of all major courses and related courses and a general catalog description of other courses available, as well as information about the University and community. (See the brochure for Duke University as an example.) These brochures are distributed to the other members of the consortium. The goal is to provide sufficient information so that it will be possible for students to obtain prior approval of courses to be taken abroad for both degree credit and major credit. Although such prior approval of credit for courses successfully completed at other US universities has been possible for Duke students in the past, similar arrangements with non-US universities have been rare for chemistry majors, at least for courses in their major. Study abroad for chemistry majors (particularly BS majors) has meant suspending work on their major and spending the year taking elective non science courses-an unattractive option for most Duke chem majors.

The new exchange program promises to change this by providing exchange of information and a common framework for accounting for course credit. The effort to bring this about began in 1993-4 with the help of joint funding from the US Department of Education and the European Union. The lead institutions in the consortium on the US side are UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Texas-Austin. The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow is the lead European institution. The effort during the first year of consortium was concentrated on devising a common framework for description of courses and for granting credit while maintaining institutional distinctiveness and autonomy. Generally this has been easier for the US universities than for the European, for many of whom the concept of individual course descriptions and grades has traditionally been truly "foreign", particularly in the sciences. Thus, prior approval of courses taken at another institution was practically impossible. In the new US-EU exchange program all the members of the consortium have described their programs of study in chemistry in terms of US-style courses and have defined the nature of an academic year's work. Furthermore, one academic year's work at each institution is equated to 60 European Transfer Credit System (ETCS) units. Thus, for example, since the standard load at Duke is 8 courses per year, each Duke course would be worth 7.5 ETCS units if completed successfully by a visiting European student. The exchange brochures-and e-mail contact between the coordinators at each of the institutions-make construction of an equivalent year's work at a trans-Atlantic university relatively straightforward in both directions.

This year 19 US students-chemistry majors-are spending the year at European universities under the auspices of the program. A comparable number of European students came to the US. About half of the US students went to one of the English-speaking universities, and the others to French or Spanish schools. In addition to Trinity (Dublin), Strathclyde (Glasgow) and Lancaster, instruction in English is also available in the Netherlands. Otherwise, proficiency in the language of the country of study is required. Several of the non-English institutions offer intensive language training for visiting students prior to the beginning of the academic year, but usually at least two years of prior language study is recommended.

The other US universities in the program in addition to UNC-Chapel Hill and UT Austin, include Franklin and Marshal, Michigan State, Purdue Colorado-Boulder, Texas A&M, Rice and several campuses of the University of California. Duke and Rice, along with the California schools, have joined the consortium in its second year. The European Union universities in the consortium are Strathclyde (Glasgow), Trinity (Dublin), Lancaster (England), Pais Vasco (San Sebastian), l'Etat de Liège, Joseph Fourier de Grenoble, Toulouse, Friedrich-Schiller, Technische Universität (Berlin), Studi di Pavia, Ioannina, Amsterdam, Aveiro and Aarhus, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich).

The coordinators of the Duke participation in the US-EU Chemistry Exchange program are Richard A. Palmer and James F. Bonk in the Chemistry Department and Christa T. Johns and Mark Matson in the Study Abroad Office. At a recent information meeting they discussed the prospects of the program with about 20 interested Duke undergraduates. Also at the meeting was Thomas A. Baer of the UNC Chemistry Department, who discussed the first year of the program at UNC, in which five chemistry majors spent the year studying at English, French and Spanish universities, and UNC was host to an equal number of European students. Duke's first students in the program will begin their study abroad in the 1995-6 academic year. Currently, several Duke students are actively working on devising programs at Joseph Fourier (Grenoble), Technische Universitet, Berlin and Lancaster. Inquiries have also been received from several European students interested in study at Duke.

As in other exchange programs, each student in the US-EU Chemistry program pays tuition and fees at his or her home institution and is responsible for his or her own living expenses while abroad. Thus it is important that the flow of students be reciprocal. However, for Duke and most of the other universities in the consortium this reciprocity is not required to be strictly one-to-one for each individual institution, but can be integrated over the group of trans-Atlantic exchange targets and over several years. According to Peter Lange, Vice Provost for Academic and International Programs, some flexibility at Duke in balancing the exchange will be necessary, particularly in getting the program started. In the long run approximate balance between students from and to Duke will be necessary and is expected.

Although this US-EU exchange program is centered on Chemistry, the hope is that it will serve as a model for exchange programs in the rest of the natural sciences.