Global Studies majors are strongly urged to gain experiential knowledge of the countries or thematic concerns they are studying through participation in an approved Study Abroad program appropriate to their concentration. Every effort will be made by the curriculum to fully integrate study abroad courses into the major. Students should seek guidance from the Study Abroad office as well as major and college advisers in planning their study abroad program. Once they have done this, they must receive course approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies of the major prior to departure for a program abroad. Students should not assume that they will receive any major credit unless programs are pre-approved. Contact Dr. Jonathan Weiler, Director of Undergraduate Studies, for more information.

Students may receive FL credit while they are abroad. However, they must receive approval from the home language department. So, if you want approval for Italian, French, Spanish or Portuguese courses, for example, you must receive approval from the Romance Languages department. For Chinese, or Japanese, from Asian Studies. And so on. GLBL cannot approve language courses. We defer to the judgment of the relevant language department.

Students may not receive credit for core courses while abroad. Students should also not expect to receive major credit for their geographic area, if they study abroad outside of their area. For example, if your area of focus is Africa, and you study abroad in China, you may not receive Africa area credit, even if you take an Africa-related class while studying in China. With the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, a student who completes more than one semester abroad may receive credit for up to four courses toward the major in one academic year, or a maximum of five courses toward the major if studying abroad more than one academic year. All requirements that apply to courses taken in residence at UNC also apply to study abroad courses.