Faculty-Led program proposals for May/Summer programs are due July 15 the year prior.

1. Build Your Program

Determine purpose, goals, and objectives for your course and develop your course syllabus with clear timelines.  Course selection and approvals must be completed and approved at the time of application.  It is the responsibility of faculty leaders to facilitate approval through their respective departments and agree on number of credits for the course.  If a new course is to be created for a program, it is the responsibility of the faculty leader to follow the standard procedure to request a new undergraduate course through their department.

Previous program courses have taken on different models. Here are a couple of examples that you can consider.

1) Embed a faculty-led program into an existing or new course that offers enrolled students the opportunity to either complete the course with an independent research report or participate in the study abroad program and any associated coursework in country. This model allows for student enrollment from both program participants and non-participants.

2) Create a new course that ties in instruction throughout the spring semester (if relevant) and ends with the final study abroad component. In this model, all students enrolled in the course are required to participate in the study abroad program.

3) Create a new course that is fully taught abroad either in May (linked to the spring semester) or in the summer. All students enrolled in this course model must go abroad. This model has been most successful for language-focused courses.

2. Plan Your Schedule

Identify host country and/or partner university, dates of travel with as much detail as possible including all transportation logistics when you are in your host country.

3. Select Your Provider and/or Institutional Partner

The Study Abroad Coordinator, can work with you on partners/and or providers best for the location and academic needs of the program.  Depending on the program, there may need to be a contract in place with a third-party study abroad provider to handle on-site logistics.  All contracts must be reviewed and approved by OIS.

4. Build Your Budget

All MSUB short-term study abroad programs require a program fee in addition to the regular MSUB tuition and fees.  Program budgets must be finalized and approved by OIS.  Once finalized, the budget cannot be changed except with the specific approval of OIS.  Costs associated with programs include fixed costs, variable (per-student) costs, a 4% contingency fee, exchange rates and minimum enrollment of students noted. 

 

Download Budget Worksheet


Financial Aid Eligibility

If a student wishes to apply for or use current financial aid, they must work with MSUB Financial Aid Office. Please note that certain timeline restrictions on financial aid apply for programs going abroad in May (if the program is tacked onto the spring semester). To be spring financial aid eligible, programs must start immediately after the end of the spring semester and end within two weeks (14 days) of the end of the spring semester. If you would like students to have access to financial aid but cannot stay within this timeframe, then you should consider running a summer course, which would require students to pay summer tuition and fees.

5. Finalize Your Proposal Documents

As the faculty leader, you must submit a complete program proposal, with the necessary signatures. Please note that you should pre-submit proposal documents to the OIS Assistant Director to confirm that all pieces are appropriately filled out.

1-2 page program proposal summary including:

  • Program overview
  • Marketing / participant recruitment plan
  • Expected student participant impact/learning outcomes
  • How the program will link back to MSUB on a broader scale to increase overall
    • Request to Lead a Group Abroad Form (signed by department chair)
    • Completed Budget Worksheet (pre-submit to OIS for initial approval, then get necessary signatures)
    • Proposed Program Syllabus (make sure to include learning outcomes)
    • Tentative Program Schedule
    • Any relevant third-party contractor information (i.e. agreement terms, contracts, etc.)

 

Step 1: Learn More

 

Step 3: Proposal Review