Centre College ranked fourth nationally for study abroad

About 85% of graduates study abroad at least once

DANVILLE, Ky. (Nov. 25, 2015) — If you want to travel abroad while studying for a higher degree Centre College is one of the best universities in the nation to attend. Centre was ranked fourth nationally in the 2015 Institute of International Education (IIE) report on study abroad participation rates for undergraduate colleges.

Centre has been in the top five of the IIE ranking nine times in the past 10 years and was ranked No. 1 in 2012 and 2014.

IIE calculates the participation percentage by treating the number of students studying abroad as the numerator and the number of graduates that year as the denominator. If a student studies abroad, say, in the fall as well as during the College’s three-week CentreTerm in January, he or she is counted twice. Centre’s participation rate often exceeds 100 percent, as it did again this year, for the fourth time in a row.

On average, 85 percent of Centre graduates study abroad once, 25 percent study twice and 5 percent study abroad three or more times.

The 2015 ranking was based on data from the 2013-2014 academic year, which saw 365 study abroad experiences by Centre students. According to Milton Reigelman, director of the Center for Global Citizenship, about half of this number studied abroad for a full semester.

Centre completely runs and staffs its own long-term, residential programs in Strasbourg, France; Merida, Mexico; and London, England. In each of these cities, students live with fellow Centre students, sometimes in homestays with local residents, and are taught by Centre professors and local experts.

Other semester-long programs are available in Shanghai, China; Reading, England; Yamaguchi, Japan; Glasgow, Scotland; and Northern Ireland options at Queens or Ulster universities.

Centre students also have numerous study abroad options through the Kentucky Institute for International Study (KIIS) for travel to Austria, Brazil, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, and elsewhere.

A special highlight of Centre’s study abroad opportunities occurs each January when faculty organize courses across the globe, sometimes team-teaching a class.

For instance, faculty in biology and philosophy will teach a course on ecology and ethics in Borneo; an art historian will take students on museum excursions in the European cities of Amsterdam, Ghent and Vienna; a Spanish professor and economist will study Cuba’s post-revolutionary economy, traveling to Havana and six other Cuban cities; and students will learn about education in a developing country first hand by traveling to Ghana with professors in anthropology and education. Other courses are being taught in Barbados, England, France, Israel, Italy, New Zealand and Thailand.

For more information about the report, visit the IEE website.