Release date: July 26, 2004
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Study Abroad Continues to Grow at Emory and Other U.S. Colleges

Studying abroad is continuing to grow rapidly at Emory University and across the country, after a brief dip the summer following 9/11. During the past decade, Emory has experienced a 73 percent increase in study abroad enrollment, with about 40 percent of its undergraduates participating in the program.

In an increasingly global marketplace, Emory's science and pre-med students have a leg up on most of their peers across the country thanks in part to an innovative faculty and student exchange in neuroscience and behavioral biology (NBB) with Emory's sister institution, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. St. Andrews' neuroscience program has received the highest government ranking in the United Kingdom. Talks are underway to offer a joint degree program in NBB/neuroscience with St. Andrews.

"Study abroad programs in science are very rare among universities because the required curriculum is so structured for these majors," says Philip Wainwright, director of Emory's study abroad programs. "Because of the building block way sciences are taught, it's hard for science students to step out of the sequence of courses for the typical study abroad program centered on language, history and culture."

Additional offerings include a new chemistry program in Siena, Italy, and a 30-year-old psychology/child development program in the United Kingdom that Wainwright says is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the United States.

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