Before initiating a petition application, you should have a good idea of the main details of the program you're interested in. Some of the program elements you will be asked about in the initial Petition Advising Questionnaire include:

• Program calendar
• Housing type(s) available
• Type of onsite supervision
• Program pre-requisites or eligibility requirements
• Full time course load on the program
• Name of institution that will issue a transcript for the program
• Type of courses offered on the program

After deciding which program you'd like to petition, start a Petition Application in MyExperientialEd and complete the Petition Advising Questionnaire.

In order to petition a program, you must meet with an advisor in the Global Education Office for Undergraduates. You will not be allowed to continue the Duke online petition application in MyExperientialEd without attending an advising session. Please schedule an appointment online with a GEO advisor.

The GEO advisor will determine if the program meets Duke’s requirements for study abroad transfer credit based on the information presented in the Petition Advising Questionnaire. 

Some of these criteria include: 

• The program’s school of record (which will issue the transcript for your academic work) must be an accredited college or university based in the U.S. or in the program’s country. Duke does not accept transfer credit from language institutes or from community colleges. 
• For semester or yearlong programs, the program must offer you the opportunity to take a foreign language for graded credit, and this work MUST appear on your transcript. This is only waived if the program is in a country where English is an official language used by the government.
• For semester or year-long programs, you must be able to take a full-time course load that is equivalent to 15-16 U.S. semester credit hours per semester.

You will also discuss the merits of the petition program with the GEO advisor, as well as your academic rationale for requesting the program.

If the GEO advisor determines basic criteria are met, your application in MyExperientialEd will be unlocked and you will then have access to complete it before the deadline provided. Deadlines for the current semester can be found above.

The Global Education Office will not accept partial petitions from students; pay careful attention to ensure that you complete all items.

The Global Education Office submits completed petition applications to the Faculty Global Education Committee at their meetings. The Committee makes all decisions on petition submissions. You will receive an email from GEO when the Committee has reached a decision about your petition, usually about two weeks after each petition deadline. See the petition notification dates above.

For next steps once a petition has been approved, consult the Application Guide for Petitions.

A link to a Qualtrics survey will be emailed to you at the end of your term (for semester or yearlong programs).

After you complete the program and have received the official transcript, please email geocourses@duke.edu to initiate the DUS evaluation of your petition coursework. You will be emailed instructions on how to upload all course materials from the program (syllabi, reading lists, papers, tests, and exams) to a DukeBox folder, which will be shared with the DUSes who originally approved each course. The DUSes will evaluate your coursework and provide feedback to GEO to be used in determining whether the program should be added to the list of Duke-approved programs. Once the DUS evaluations have been received for all courses taken, the credits from your semester abroad will be added to your Duke transcript.

• If you are unsure, check out our program recommendations by area of study.
• Be prepared to justify your reasoning for wanting to petition a program that closely mirrors one that is already Duke-administered or Duke-approved.

• This includes individual course approvals, rationale essays for petitioning, and extensive program research.
• It is the petitioner’s responsibility to be aware of all of their application requirements and meet all deadlines.

• Students who petition should prepare to be independent. While GEO is able to help in the event of an emergency, the same level of support may not be available compared to a Duke-administered or Duke-approved program.
• Petitions are in place for a reason. Petitioning is an exceptional opportunity by design. These programs are not vetted by our office for meeting certain standards required to be added to the Duke-approved list.

• Petitions should never be your backup plan. The application process is time consuming for the student and GEO staff. If you are planning to petition, the expectation is that it is your first choice because there is nothing available on the Duke-administered or Duke-approved list that meets your academic needs.
• When your petition is up for review, the committee will be able to view all open applications. Open applications to other programs, especially those in the same geographic area, may call the necessity of your petition into question as you are indicating that another program may fit your academic needs. Therefore, there is a chance that your petition will be denied.