Revived program brings KU to the U.K.
Next summer, KU students will have the opportunity to experience all of the comforts of Kutztown, across the Atlantic Ocean. The KU-UK program is being revived, and will allow students to take classes for college credit from KU professors in the heart of London.
Participants will spend 14 days living in the dorms of the Marylebone campus of the University of Warminster from June 21 to July 14, 2010. Classes will be held in the same building. At 75 minutes long, the classes will be taught Monday through Saturday, with free time in the afternoons and on Sundays for individual travel.
The program will be open to students of all majors, and classes taught will include Fine Arts, Communication Design, Professional Writing/English, Criminal Justice, Education, Photography, International Studies, Music, and Psychology. Professors will take advantage of the opportunity to explore their topics in another country by incorporating field trips around the city into their class activities. For example, Dr. Matthew Nesvisky, a Professional Writing professor, will take students of his Arts and Entertainment Writing course to a theatre production, while students enrolled in the course Social Psychology of Sport Fandom will attend a sporting event such as cricket or soccer, and students taking Education class will visit schools.
Course credit will work similarly as with classes taken at KU, with three credits available for each class to be put toward graduation requirements.
Dr. Anthony Bleach, a professor in the English department, is coordinating the program along with Nesvisky. Bleach said the program will combine immersion in the English culture with the stability and comfort of a university-organized trip. “The way the program is run allows students to have an immersive experience but also have the added stability and security of having the knowledge and expertise of Kutztown professors… It’s a good KU experience in a different kind of context.”
In the past, the program has been held at the Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, located in northwest London. The decision to relocate was based on past difficulties in traveling to and from the university’s site. Bleach said it was challenging to get in and out of the area, and the new, centralized location will allow students more time to explore and experience London with less time spent getting place to place.
“There are new directors, it’s a new program, and it’s at a new site,” Bleach said.
The Marylebone campus also offers more modern facilities. The dormitories that will house participants offer all the amenities that students are used to having on-campus at KU. Some rooms will also be connected to kitchens.
Though class time will include plenty of travel and cultural immersion, students will have ample opportunity to explore on their own. “As in the past, students will be given a good amount of freedom to do whatever they please,” Bleach said. In past UK trips, he said many students have taken long weekend trips to Amsterdam, Paris, and other nearby locations.
Participants will also have the benefit of being with someone familiar with the city. Bleach was born in London and completed his master’s degree there, which is part of the reason he is so enthusiastic about being a part of the trip. “I’m a massive Anglophile,” he said. “It’s the greatest country in the world.”
There is no minimum GPA or other academic requirements to participate in the program, but Bleach said students should check the prerequisite for the courses they plan to take while in the UK. Also necessary, Bleach said, are a “passport, spending money, and sense of adventurousness.”
The program is open to undergraduates and graduate students. Fees (see below) vary depending on Pennsylvania residence and academic status (graduate courses are slightly more expensive) and include lodging, 13 full breakfasts, local travel costs, and field trips and enrichment activities. Airfare is not included and is up to the students to arrange, but Bleach said that efforts will be made to put students on the same flights as participating professors.
For more information, interested students may contact either of the program coordinators at bleach@kutztown.edu or nesvisky@kutztown.edu, or stop by the Office of International Studies in room 204 of the Stratton Administration Building, where application are available.
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