The London Program will now allow students to study abroad for the entire year, instead of the traditional one semester option.
"It's something we had been looking into for quite some time," said London Program associate director Terri Bays. "The full year gives students the opportunity to engage in more extended projects."
The London Program, which is directly run by the University, is the largest of Notre Dame's international study programs. Most other study abroad locations allow students to spend an entire year in the foreign country.
Currently, the London Program offers students numerous opportunities for internships and other experiences, such as working for a Member of Parliament. Bays said that, with the year-long option, student would be able to do longer internships and more in-depth research projects, and that her office would work to develop more long-term opportunities.
"That's certainly something that's in the works," Bays said. "We're ready to put the investment in."
As a result of the new year-long option, Bays said enrollment numbers for the program, presently at 150 students per semester, would likely increase but that the majority of students would still study for only a semester.
Additionally, the curriculum for both semesters, which generally requires science and engineering majors to study in the fall and business majors in the spring, would not change, either. Because of the change, the London Program has extended the application deadline and will also allow students who already applied to change their preference to a full year.
Notre Dame has the third highest percentage of students studying abroad behind Yeshiva University and Georgetown University, according to a recent report by the Institute for International Education. In the 2001-02 academic year, for which the statistics were complied, 50 percent of Notre Dame students studied overseas, up about 10 percent from the previous year.
"[Studying abroad] allows for deeper immersion in the culture than [students] would otherwise have. It opens up a number of different possibilities," Bays said.
