It is highly likely that you as an advisor will have at least one student in your charge who intends to study abroad at some point during his or her academic career here at Purdue. The study abroad process is intended to be simple for the student, and our ultimate aim is to allow a student to study abroad without having to extend his or her program of study. There are already many processes in place that help to assure that simplicity. This hopefully will make your job less complicated. We have included below a simple outline of the responsibilities that you have to your students and to the College with respect to Study Abroad.

Although many advisors find that it makes their job easier to know a little about the programs that students can participate in, it is not your responsibility to know what study abroad program is right for a particular student. During pre-departure the student and the IPIA Study Abroad Staff work to make a final determination about the most appropriate program for the student.

As an advisor you can assist us in this process by helping the student to determine what requirements remaining in his or her program of study would be best suited for fulfillment through ANY program abroad. Armed then with this information and with the help of the IPIA office the student can make an informed choice about the Study Abroad options that are feasible for him or her.

After a student has narrowed his or her choices down to a select few and has decided the foreign courses he or she wishes to take, it remains the student's responsibility to thoroughly investigate the content of those courses.

It will often be the case that a student would like to know what requirement(s) of his or her program of study the course or courses that they intend to complete abroad will fulfill. And, there will be a few instances where a student MUST know this information before they go abroad. There is a process in place where a student can determine this information, and you are a central part of it.

Ultimately it is the responsibility of the Office of Academic Programs to determine that a student has adequately fulfilled the requirements for his or her degree, and at Purdue Agriculture it is often the case that a student will have fulfilled those requirements in part through a program abroad. While advisors do not have final responsibility for determining that a student has completed the requirements of his or her degree, your opinion on the matter is appreciated. Because of this, you will be considered the first academic point of contact for determining how a particular course taken abroad will fit within any student's program of study.

In some cases, such as Spring Break or Short-term Summer (Maymester) programs, the Purdue equivalent course for the work done on the program is already established. The international course is being taught by a Purdue professor and is an actual Purdue course that is awarded Purdue credit. In this case your job is very simply to make a determination of how that particular Purdue course fulfills the student's program requirements just as you would for any course offered at the West Lafayette Campus.

In a situation where the courses the student intends to take abroad are not actual Purdue courses, but are courses offered at a foreign university that has been recognized by the college of Agriculture, we ask that you assist the student in determining how those particular courses will fulfill the requirements of his or her program of study. This is done by taking the information that the student should provide you about the nature of the course (subject matter, instructional hours, requirements., etc.) and determining how that course would fulfill the student's requirements if it were a course offered on campus.

A student who takes a course on an approved Agriculture Study Abroad Program will receive Purdue credits and grades for the coursework that they do abroad. This transference is handled by the OAP, and these courses will be reflected on the student's official transcript with Purdue Ag. course numbers, titles, and grades. So, you, as an advisor, can be assured that you can confidently determine how a foreign course would fit into a student's program as if it were actually taken on Purdue's campus.

This assurance process can be made official for the student by assisting the student in completing a Course Equivalency Form. This form provides a quick and easy way for you to document how a course abroad will fulfill a student's course requirements. This form contains four columns: Study Abroad Course Number/Title, Purdue Equivalency course Number/Title, Purdue Credit, and Use in Plan of Study.

As an advisor you only need to be concerned with the first and last column. It is the responsibility of the OAP to establish the Purdue equivalent course number, title, and credit that is awarded for any course abroad. You, because you are assured that the courses will return for Purdue credit and grades, can confidently use the description of the content of the course to fill out the course equivalency form with the name and title of the course taken abroad and the particular requirement of the student's program of study that that course will replace. This requirement can be a specifically named course, a directed elective, or even a free elective.

Once you have filled out and signed the form, the student will take it to the Office of Academic Programs where it will be reviewed and the Purdue equivalent course title and number will be set.  After this final review the form will be signed approving the course equivalencies and the replacements you have recommended for the student's plan of study.

All official Study Abroad programs, regardless of duration or potential number of credits earned (this includes Maymester and Spring Break courses), are designated in the Purdue University Registration System by a unique course number. This course number will always begin with the letters "SA" to be followed by a three-digit number and possibly an alphanumeric suffix. A student may register only for a single SA course number for any academic term. After a student has completed his or her program abroad the SA number will be replaced by the Purdue course numbers that have been awarded to the student for that work.

It is the academic advisors responsibility to register the student for the appropriate "SA" course number of the student's chosen program prior to the start of the term the student intends to go abroad. The student should be able to provide you with the appropriate "SA" course number for which he or she should be registered. This can be taken care of at the normal course registration meeting that you schedule with the student prior to any upcoming term.

There are a couple of instances that a student might need your help while they are aboard. It is sometimes the case that a student cannot register for the exact courses abroad for which he or she had established course equivalencies. If this is the case please be ready to work with a student via e-mail to determine if a course he or she intends to take abroad could be used within his or her plan of study.

Also, a non-graduating student who is going on a long-term program will need to contact you via e-mail so that you can help him or her to register for the courses that he or she plans on taking the following term.

Once a student has returned to campus from abroad the "SA Number" for which he or she had registered will be replaced by the course numbers, titles, credits, and grades that have been awarded for the work they had done abroad. This transference is handled by the Office of Academic Programs. Once these courses are on the student's transcript, please use them to fill requirements in his or her plan of study.

This process is made easier if the student has previously completed a course equivalency form. It then becomes just a matter of matching up the new course number with the course requirement that you have already established could be fulfilled with the course taken abroad.

If the course course taken abroad has not previously been determined to fill a requirement in the student's program of study, it is up to you to use the information that the student should provide (description, syllabus, etc.) about the course to establish how that course could fulfill a requirement of the student's program of study. Courses taken abroad can be used to fulfill any program requirement from core courses to free electives.  If you have questions about the process or you have a concern you can always contact Dr. Allan Goeckerr in the Office of Academic Programs