From:�������������������������������������������� Tania Tucker

Sent:���������������������������������������������� Wednesday, August 26, 2015 5:05 PM

To:������������������������������������������������� Maria Jennings

Cc:�������������������������������������������������� Catherine Meschievitz

Subject:���������������������������������������� FW: Study Abroad Course Credit Changes

 

College of Arts and Letters support email.

 

 

Dear Tania,

 

Thank you for your explanation. Based on these procedures you outlined, and given the need to have more flexibility in assigning overseas credits, I support the effort to increase the range of credits to 1-6 credits for our study abroad affiliated courses.

 

Best,

 

Michael

 

 

Michael J. Horswell, PhD

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research

Director, PhD in Comparative Studies

Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Florida Atlantic University

777 Glades Road

Boca Raton, FL 33431

Email: horswell@fau.edu

Tel: 561-297-3863

Website: http://www.fau.edu/llcl/Horswell.php

PhD website: www.fau.edu/comparativestudies

 

 

 

 

Hi Michael, thank you for your email, we are happy to clarify. If you don�t mind I am going to address each question/paragraph below.

 

 

Dear Tania and Cathy,

 

While this seems like a simple and innocuous request, we would like clarification as to whether departments will continue to have a voice in how many credits are determined to be equivalent to FAU course credits. For example, if a provider says a French intermediate course is 6 credits, who verifies that the course indeed represents 6 credits? The department or your office?

 

All course approvals will continue to go to the respective department chairs for their consideration and approval. Once we get the course approval(s) back the approval is shared with the students. Using your example, if a French intermediate course is considered 6 credits by our exchange partner or overseas institution the language department may decide based on the course syllabus that the course is only equivalent to FRE 2200 for 4 credits. The student will be registered for the 6 credits as that is what will appear on the overseas transcript, but will be told that the course will only be equivalent to 4 credits of FRE 2220, and that the 2 other credits may not be able to be used towards your major/minor but will be additional credits that can be used towards their elective credits and/or towards the 120 hours. Additionally, students are encouraged to go see their academic advisors once course approvals are returned to see how the courses fit into their degree program

 

Also, from the perspective of languages at least, we may have a concern about students� expectations as far as application of credits to degrees. Again, because most of our courses are 4 credits and they are linked to proficiency levels and corresponding hours studied and topics covered, equivalency is hard to determine. I say this based on many years of trying to do this. Many providers are vague in how they describe their courses.

 

Students are given placement tests when they go overseas to make sure they have enough proficiency to take the overseas course. They are never promised that they will place into the overseas course they want to take or believe they need at FAU, and are not promised more than they are approved for. For example if a student took Beginning Spanish 1 (SPN 112) at FAU, and then wanted to take Beginning Spanish 2 abroad and it is only worth 3 credits overseas, but was approved as SPN 1121, the student would still only registered for 3 credits, not 4. The student is then told that the course is only 3 credits overseas and that they may still be one credit short of satisfying their language requirement at FAU as they will only have 7 credits and not 8. The language department/academic advisor would need to determine whether or not in this situation the student satisfied the requirement. We always as cautious and let the student know they may still need to come back to FAU and take another Spanish course. The student is kept informed and decides what they want to do.

 

And, since most courses are 3 or 4 credits, this may actually affect many of our majors. What does a student do with 2 extra credits if they cannot be applied to their degree?  Who is ensuring they are not taking extra credits that cannot count?

 

The student can use the extra credits towards their elective credit or 120 credits. The student�s academic advisor would determine how those extra credits could be applied. In some cases the student will be making the conscious choice to take classes that will give them additional credits that they may not be able to use towards their degree. It�s similar to a student who transfers credits in, and finds they have extra credits that do not apply to their major, minor, or degree.

 

I am copying Dr. Ruthenberg who is the point person for languages and Prof. Johnson who is our UPC liaison in case there are any other issues.

 

Once these issues are clarified I will then write a memo of support (or not).

 

Thanks,

 

Michael

 

 

 

Dear Dean Coltman,

 

I wanted to follow-up on the support memo that is needed below. Thank you in advance. Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

Dear Dean Coltman,

 

The Office of International Programs has added a number of new partners to our exchange program roster and we are seeing growth in student interest to go abroad on our exchanges. We currently have study abroad course numbers in your college at the lower and upper division level, which we use for registering FAU students when they go abroad on exchange (i.e. FOL 2952, ANT 4957). The study abroad courses were set up to be variable credit bearing courses from 1-3 credits or 1-4 credits. Some of our new partner schools courses offer more credits than ours and can range from 1-6 credits. To better meet the needs of our students, we are in the process of increasing the variable credits for our study abroad course numbers that are found in your college.

 

We are going through the approval process with the help of Professor Jerry Haky, Maria Jennings of the Registrar�s Office, and the University Undergraduate Programs Committee (UUPC). They have asked that we get an email of support so that the Committee knows we are making credit changes with the approval of the colleges. We would like to ask for your support. The following text was suggested, �The College of XXXXX approves the credit change for our study abroad courses to 1-6 credits.� Your email of support can be sent to me at trtucker@fau.edu. We are requesting that your email of support arrive by August 12, so we can submit all paperwork for the September 4 UUPC Meeting. Thank you in advance for your help in making the study abroad experience for FAU students easier. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at 7-3227.

 

Sincerely,
Tania

Tania Tucker, MA
Assistant Director
Office of International Programs

Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road, GS 2, Rm. 212Q
Boca Raton, FL 33431 (USA)
561-297-3227
561-297-2850 FAX
www.fau.edu/goabroad