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Baruch Faculty
A Note from the Study Abroad Director:
What distinguishes study abroad most from study at Baruch is a focused, reflective interaction with the host culture. All of us who promote international education hope that these encounters with a new cultural environment will help our students develop a more complexly reflective view of themselves and of the world. Yet for all that, study abroad remains study abroad. An important part of the mission of the Study Abroad Office is to help us ensure the academic integrity of the programs Baruch students attend. Baruch faculty are indispensable to achieving this goal. These web pages, which I consider to be a work in progress, are designed to provide some basic information about the strictly academic side of study abroad to those faculty members who might be less familiar with it. The Study Abroad Office works closely with Baruch faculty, and often calls upon its expertise and resources, to inform us about a given university or academic institution, to evaluate courses at these institutions and on other study abroad programs, to promote international education in general and study abroad in particular to their students, to help design programs for Baruch students, and to work towards integrating Baruch students' study abroad experiences more thoroughly into their overall College education. Since my arrival I have put in place some new procedures that are designed to reduce unnecessary duplication of effort. I welcome any suggestions as to how we might improve or further streamline the purely administrative aspect of study abroad, so as better to focus on the academics. Please know that I am always willing to assist you in whatever way I can, and hope that our fruitful collaboration will continue to grow.
Richard Mitten
Study Abroad Director
The Academics of Study Abroad at Baruch
Credit for Study Abroad at Baruch
At Baruch, credit for study abroad is awarded strictly on the basis of course equivalencies. To earn credit for study abroad, students must choose courses they wish to take abroad, and must also find a course offered at Baruch that matches as closely as possible the foreign institution's course in subject matter and academic level. The Study Abroad Office assists students in finding appropriate Baruch course equivalencies. It is preferable for a student to receive departmental credit for courses taken abroad if possible, but for courses at foreign institutions that fall wide of the mark, students have the option of applying for general elective credit (the BUS, LAS and PAF 7000 series). Approval of course equivalencies is granted by Baruch Faculty Departments, or, for general elective credit, by the Dean's offices of Baruch's three schools.
Course Equivalency Approval Requests
The procedure followed for approval of course equivalencies comprises the following steps.
- Students submit to the Study Abroad Office course descriptions of the courses they wish to take abroad, along with requested Baruch equivalencies.
- On the basis of these, and after some preliminary screening of the requests, the Study Abroad Office prepares a Course Equivalency Approval Request (CEAR) form for each such individual course equivalency requested.
- We submit these CEARs to the appropriate departmental study abroad representative (usually, but not always the department chair) for approval.
- The departmental study abroad representative may either (1) approve the requested course equivalency unconditionally; (2) approve it subject to specified conditions; (3) deny it because the foreign course does not match the requested Baruch course equivalency; or (4) approve the foreign course for a different departmental course equivalency.
- The departmental study abroad representative returns the CEAR form to the Study Abroad Office. If the requested equivalency is approved, it will be submitted to the Registrar's Office as part of the student's Study Abroad Permit Application. The Study Abroad Permit in effect reaffirms the departmental decision and authorizes the student to take the specified foreign university course for the approved Baruch course equivalency.
No student may receive credit for studying abroad without having the course equivalency approved by the departmental study abroad representative and by the Registrar's Office.
The Study Abroad Course Equivalency Database
Every course equivalency that is approved for a specific foreign university course will be considered valid for this given course and its Baruch equivalency only for a period of three years for all other students who attend the same study abroad program (i.e., the same foreign university or other institution of higher education abroad) and request approval for the same course for the same Baruch equivalency.
For each additional student who requests an approved course equivalency already on file, the Study Abroad Office confirms that he/she had completed, or will have completed prior to her/his study abroad program, all the pre-requisites for the Baruch course. We also consult with the departmental study abroad representative if there are any special circumstances or other questions regarding a student's course equivalency request. However, the Study Abroad Office does not send the departmental study abroad representative more than one Course Equivalency Approval Request for the same foreign course/Baruch equivalency for a period of three years. The records of any approved course equivalencies are held in the Study Abroad Office and are available to departmental study abroad representatives at any time.
We are in the process of moving the CEAR procedures online, which will allow us to maintain and electronic database of previously approved course equivalencies. For the moment, however, we have the courses stored in ring binders in the Study Abroad Office
Go back to Who What Where
View the information on the study abroad application process