An individual faculty member and the Global Education Office for Undergraduates (GEO), generally have responsibility for developing a new Duke-administered study abroad or U.S.-based study away program. In developing the program, the faculty member and GEO staff will work in consultation with the academic department head of the sponsoring unit, the faculty-led Duke Global Education Committee, and other appropriate Duke departments and administrators.

We are currently in an active RFP for summer programs.

If you are interested in developing a summer program review the RFP details and supplemental planning documents here: https://duke.box.com/v/geo-rfp-materials. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the proposal process, we recommend you meet with a GEO director to review your proposal before submitting it.

If you are interested in developing a semester or year-long program, please contact the GEO directors at geodirectors@duke.edu.

The individual faculty member initiates the approval process by obtaining permission to proceed from their academic department head.

All study abroad and U.S.-based programs sponsored by Duke University must be approved by the appropriate officials at Duke to ensure that the program adheres to university policies and procedures. The approval process also serves as a “checks and balances” to ensure that appropriate provisions were made for the program’s implementation. New programs should not be publicized until approval has been secured.

Once a ‘Request for Approval’ form has been reviewed and approved by the faculty-led Global Education Committee, GEO will be responsible for notifying the faculty member and department head that the program proposal has received final approval. The original 'Request for Approval' will be filed in the Global Education Office.

If approval is not given, or if the faculty committee has feedback or requires follow-up action on the proposal, the notification generally comes directly from the committee chair.

Programs that have been approved to run will be evaluated by students, and assessed by GEO and the Duke Assessment Office through the use of program and course evaluations.

It is highly preferred that faculty begin by developing a summer program, as this permits both faculty and the GEO to gauge student interest before developing a semester program.