Courses

Use the International Course Equivalency Worksheet in conjunction with the Study Abroad General Education (SAGE) Worksheet, to plan your study abroad experience and define how it will fit in to your degree plan and academic career. Look through the catalog of the institution where you will study abroad to identify courses you would like to take, and try to match them with appropriate courses from the OU catalog. The International Education staff is available to help you locate courses and determine credit values and potential equivalencies. Please select more courses than you ultimately plan on taking, as some of your selections may be full or may not be available during the term you study abroad. You may have to complete multiple copies of this form if you are considering a large number of classes or if you will be taking classes in many different departments.

Once you have filled out a draft course worksheet, it is your responsibility to speak with the appropriate faculty in the departments in which you wish to earn credit. You should bring them this worksheet as well as the course descriptions and syllabi, if available, of your selected courses. The faculty advisers will sign your sheet, indicating pre-approval of the courses you have chosen, and may make additional comments in the space provided. This sheet will be kept on file in the Office of International Education as part of your permanent academic record, and will guide how your course credits are entered on your OU transcript once you have successfully completed your study abroad.

You must receive departmental pre-approval for any courses you wish to count towards your major or minor requirements. For elective courses, departmental pre-approval is necessary for courses to count for upper-level credit. Any courses for which you do not obtain pre-approval will be counted as lower-level elective courses at OU.

To use study abroad courses to fulfill your general education requirements, complete the SAGE Worksheet.

Please use your best judgment to pre-approve course equivalencies in your department in the most appropriate manner for each student. Do not hesitate to contact the OIE for clarification or consultation. Credit values for courses abroad are determined based on a standardized formula according to the education system in each study abroad location, and generally may not be changed by the departments. Credit values need not match the OU catalog credit value for each course equivalency, i.e. it is perfectly appropriate to match a course for which a student will earn three credits with a four-credit course from the OU catalog, and vice versa. For a course worth more than four credits, it will sometimes be appropriate to match it to multiple OU courses, or to match it to a single OU course and count the remaining credits as electives. Likewise, multiple courses worth one or two credits may be combined to match a single OU course.

Use the comment field to provide any additional information you feel is relevant, such as the concentration or track in which courses should be counted, or how to break down the credit hours for courses matched to multiple equivalencies.

Use the Study Abroad General Education worksheet, in conjunction with the International Course Equivalency (ICE) Worksheet, to plan your study abroad experience and define how it will fit in to your degree plan and academic career. Many courses you take abroad may be used to fulfill elements of Oakland University’s general education requirement. The 15 knowledge areas, and their place in the three-part structure of foundations, explorations and integration, are shown at the top of the worksheet. Select the courses you wish to take and indicate which knowledge areas you hope to apply them to. Some courses may be double-counted, fulfilling requirements from two knowledge areas or from one knowledge area and your major. You will find detailed information about each of the knowledge areas and their requirements here. Please select more courses than you ultimately plan on taking, as some of your selections may be full, or may not be available during the term you study abroad. You may complete multiple copies of this form if you are considering a large number of classes.

Once you have filled out a draft of this worksheet, take it to the Office of International Education for review. A signature from the OIE will serve as an official recommendation to the General Education Committee that your courses be counted as indicated. Please save your syllabus and all coursework you complete while abroad, so that it may be submitted along with this recommendation to the committee upon your return.

For most knowledge areas you will only need to get a signature from the Office of International Education. If you wish to complete the capstone or writing intensive in major requirements while abroad, you will also need a signature from your department. To use study abroad courses to fulfill your major requirements, complete the ICE Worksheet.

This form indicates which general education requirements a student hopes to complete abroad. The Office of International Education will review and sign it, indicating OIE’s approval for the General Education Committee to count the courses as indicated. A student only needs departmental approval if they hope to complete the capstone or writing intensive in major requirement while abroad.