Education Abroad

Education abroad programs can provide students with a valuable extension of UConn’s curriculum in a different cultural context.  In cases where opportunities abroad do not closely resemble specific departmental offerings at UConn, students can apply to align their courses through one of the designations overseen by UICC, most often UNIV.

First Steps

Students who plan to study abroad should always start by requesting accreditation for their international courses within school or college-based departments at UConn. Many departments require that students align courses before they leave for education abroad travel to be sure the classes qualify for departmental credit.

UICC designations are not based in a school or college at UConn, so they should only be requested after a student has pursued and been declined for other options.  If a course is clearly difficult to place under a specific department, students should contact the most applicable department(s) to request accreditation.  Students should then request that the department either review the course or provide a referral to the UICC for an interdisciplinary designation.

Students are to request accreditation from two academic departments at UConn before submitting a request to UICC. In some cases, this requirement can be waived for students who take courses that clearly have no equivalent at UConn.  For example, most courses taken at the London College of Fashion generally come straight to the UICC for consideration.

Courses can be aligned under the UNIV designation at either the 1000, 2000, or 3000 level for letter grades, and the 1000 or 2000 level for Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grading.

How to Apply for UICC Credit

To request alignment of an international course, students should follow the directions on the Education Abroad office’s website. When submitting a request through the online system, be sure the following information is included either in the comments section of the request or is submitted as an attachment.

  • Verification that two other UConn departments have declined alignment (Note the departments in the comments section.)
  • A full syllabus or equivalent for the course that includes the following information:
    • The instructor’s name
    • Course objectives or goals
    • The course number
    • A notation of how many international credits the course is worth
    • A schedule of assignments and reading
    • A grading breakdown that indicates the work on which the student will be assessed
  • A list of other courses the student took abroad that semester and the total number of foreign credits earned (This can also be included in the comments section.)

Every attempt is made to resolve student requests as quickly and fairly as possible, but some periods in the semester are busier than others and requests can take up to several weeks to process.  Planning ahead and ensuring that all requested materials are sent with the request helps speed up response time immensely.

For any questions, please contact the UICC Administrator.

The UNIV designation

UICC oversees courses under the designations of INTD and UNIV.  Education Abroad alignment requests are most often approved as UNIVs, but in rare cases the UICC may elect to accredit some Education Abroad courses as INTDs. This decision will be up to the discretion of the UICC Chair.