About UNT Study Abroad

There are 3 ways to study abroad as a UNT student.

1. Exchange Programs. You go to one of our partner universities and trade places with a student from another country. You pay tuition and fees at UNT for full-time credit (12 hours for undergraduate and 9 hours for graduate students).  Depending on the program, you might pay room and board at UNT or at the host university. You transfer your academic credit back to UNT.

   Exchanges are usually done in the long semester or for an academic year.

2. Affiliated Programs. These are a good choice for students who want to go someplace we don't offer an exchange option. You pay program fees directly to a provider who sets up your housing, classes, plans excursions, and provides on-the-ground services; you have access to an on-site director who can address any situations that might come up while you're abroad. You are not enrolled at UNT on an affiliated program.

   You can participate for a summer, a semester or a year.

3. Faculty-Led Programs. You go with a UNT professor who teaches his or her class in another country. You are enrolled in a UNT class and you travel together as a group. Faculty-led participants pay tuition and fees at UNT for the class and also other program costs (like airfare, travel in-country, lodging, etc.)

   UNT offers from 20-30 faculty-led programs each year, usually in the summer terms (but also in the winter inter-session or sometimes over spring break).

Come by the SAC (Kendall Hall, rm. 115) and talk with our faculty-led coordinator, Patrick Russell. Or, call us at 940/565-2207, or visit our faculty-led program information page. You'll need an application form from us to start your participation in the program you choose.

Take a look at our exchange program listing. Also, take a look at www.isep.org for some other options in a variety of countries. You'll be surprised at how many countries you can study in if you only speak English!

Next, make an advising appointment with a study abroad advisor right away! We don't want you to miss any deadlines. Valerie and Mary Beth are the advisors for exchanges and affiliated programs.

OK, you probably want to find an affiliated program. A great place to start looking is www.studyabroad.com - a search engine where you can enter where/when/what and get a list of the providers that have programs to meet your needs. Be sure to make an advising appointment to discuss your program with an SAC advisor.

Maybe! You'll need to bring the information to your advising appointment so we can look at it and make sure it's a program you can receive credit for.

If you go on an approved program you can use your financial aid. There is some paperwork that you'll need to do. We'll cover that in the advising appointment.

The IEFS (International Education Fee Scholarship) is given on a first-come, first-served basis. All of our applications include the scholarship application. You must have been enrolled at UNT within the past 12 months and be in good standing with the university to be eligible.

Plan to meet with an advisor at least a semester before you want to go on an exchange or an affiliated program. The deadline for exchange is March 1 for the fall semester or year. (Exception: Kansai Gaidai deadline is February 1.) So, a good time to start meeting with an advisor for exchange is the fall before. The deadline for spring exchange is October 1. Affiliated programs are on a rolling deadline with no firm cutoff date. We'll start posting information about our faculty-led programs in late fall and payments will start around the end of the year for the following summer.

Exchange and affiliated credit comes back to UNT as transfer credit. It takes from 2-3 months after your return for your grades to arrive at UNT. Your transcript is then translated into American credit hours and grades and posted to your UNT transcript. Like other transfer work, it does not figure into your ongoing UNT GPA, but it will factor into your cumulative GPA when you graduate and all your work is calculated into a final cumulative GPA.

Faculty-led grades are factored immediately into your UNT GPA.

As a part of the application process for an exchange or affiliated program, you will take a "Pre-Approval of Classes" form to your advisor with course descriptions of the classes you want to take. Your advisor will determine how the foreign courses will count toward your degree and sign off on the form. Then your dean will also sign off on the form and then you'll return it to the SAC. This pre-approval will be recorded along with your transcript so that any advisor can look at it later and see how your credit should count toward your degree.

Pre-approval is not necessary for faculty-led programs, since you are enrolled in a UNT class(es).

Yes! It can be a bit more complicated to fit into a graduate program, so you should meet with a study abroad advisor to discuss it. Many faculty-led programs are graduate level.

Yes; study abroad is for every UNT student. Please let the SAC know at least 6 months before your program what non-U.S. citizenship you hold, so that we can help you determine what your special visa requirements are.

For exchanges, students must have a minimum 3.0. Affiliated programs set their own GPA requirements, so check with the one you like to see what they require. GPA requirements for faculty-led programs vary. No one who is not in good standing with the university is eligible for study abroad.

We attempt to accommodate all students interested in studying abroad. Please don't hesitate to let us know about your special circumstances. We are committed to making an international experience available to all students, and we'll be happy to advise individually to identify the best program for a particular student.

Yes, in most cases; however, any participant in a UNT program must be enrolled at UNT for the academic term during the time of the program. For participation in a summer program, contact the program's faculty leader to inquire. Exchange programs are open only to UNT students.