When Duke-Administered and Duke-Approved programs don’t meet your academic needs, you can consider petitioning a program. You must work with a GEO advisor on your petition and have a true academic need that cannot be met.
After submitting a petition, it will be reviewed by the faculty on the Global Education Committee. If your petition is approved, that approval is only for you and your individual circumstance.
A maximum of six petition applications will be opened per term for any given program.
When you return to Duke, your academic work will be evaluated by the relevant Directors of Undergraduate Studies (DUS). If these evaluations are positive, the program can be petitioned by other students in the future.
View the Application Guide
The Application Guide for Petitions contains step-by-step guidance for petitioning a study away program.
Petition Deadlines
Petition Deadlines - SPRING 2025
The deadline to meet with an advisor and start a petition for Summer or Fall 2025 is February 18.
The deadlines to submit your petition for programs taking place in Summer or Fall 2025 are February 3, 2025 or March 3, 2025.
All items need to be completed and submitted by 12 pm on the petition deadline date. If you have any questions, please email geoadvising@duke.edu.
Petition Policies
Students are limited to ONE petition application per semester. The petition application counts as one of the three total applications a student may have open per semester.
A maximum of six petition applications will be opened per term for any given program. This is determined on a first come, first served basis after scheduling a meeting with a GEO advisor and completing all required documents so that the advisor can open the application. No exceptions will be made.
Petitions require students to be prepared well in advance of the application cycle. The pre-meeting petition advising questionnaire does not count as a petition application. Not all approval requests are successful, therefore, you should have a backup plan.
Once a minimum of two different students in two different terms return from the program, the program can be reviewed by the faculty on the Global Education Committee to determine if the program should become a Duke-Approved program.
Until a program is added to the Duke-Approved list, it must be petitioned by every student who wishes to participate. This policy stands even if another student has successfully petitioned the program in the past.
Students on a petition program are required to live in their program’s housing. Exceptions are not granted to students who have family members in the area.
Students interested in petitioning program must be able to identify a true academic need.
Programs in the same location as another Duke-Approved or Duke-Administered will not be considered unless the student can identify a unique need that cannot be met on the existing programs. This policy stands even when a student has been waitlisted for other Duke-Approved/Duke-Administered programs in the same city.
Petitions to a program or university to which GEO already offers access through a Duke-Administered or Duke-Approved program are not permitted. For example, both Duke in Madrid and IES-Madrid offer access to Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) so students cannot petition to attend another program that offers access to UC3M or petition to attend U3CM directly.
Petitions to a program in the same city as a Duke-Administered program will not be considered for students who meet the minimum language requirement of the Duke-Administered program. For example, a student with Advanced French and eligible for Duke in France cannot petition NYU Paris. Exceptions will only considered if the student can identify a unique need that cannot be met by the Duke-Administered program.