History Backs Study Abroad

The history department passed two resolutions Thursday to make it easier for concentrators to study abroad—the second of which lessened their requirements.

The first stated the department’s principle that study abroad is an integral part of undergraduate education. The resolutions come on the heels of a recent University-wide effort led by President Lawrence H. Summers to improve and expand study abroad opportunities.

One of the major differences under the new policy is that courses taken abroad will no longer be required to have an exact correlation to courses offered at Harvard to be worthy of credit.

Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth, who drafted the language of the resolutions, said that he felt such policy removed what he considers “the principal obstacle” standing between Harvard students and study out of residence.

Thursday’s resolutions also lowered concentration requirements for students who decide to study abroad.

“Students who study out-of-residence in an Anglophone country, or who enroll in courses taught in English in other settings, will receive an automatic one-course reduction in the number of courses required for the history concentration after one semester of full-time study,” the resolution says. Study out-of-residence in a non-Anglophone country for one semester will earn an automatic two-course reduction in their requirements—and an additional one-course exemption will be earned for a second semester of full-time study.

Finally, Thursday’s two resolutions increased the amount of credit that history concentrators are permitted to receive for work done abroad. While as a general rule, the history department formerly granted only two half-course credits for a semester of study abroad or three half-course credits for a full year of study abroad, it will now allow students to petition the head tutor for up to a maximum of four history courses per semester taken abroad.

Both of Thursday’s resolutions were approved by a unanimous vote of the full history department faculty.

Coatsworth said that he felt the unanimity of the vote was an indication of widespread support for easing study abroad requirements.

“There is really no resistance to the notion that there should be an easing of requirements for students who undertake erious study abroad,” Coatsworth said.

According to Coatsworth, there are currently similar proposals to liberalize study abroad restrictions before other departments, though he declined to comment on which departments those were.

Geisinger Professor of History and Director of the Harvard University Asia Center William C. Kirby said the department will also be looking toward FAS and the Standing Committee on the Core to ease requirements on students who wish to travel.

“We understand that if there is to be progress made in this area, not only will FAS and perhaps Core requirements need to change, but departments, too, will need to take extra steps so that study abroad becomes not an exceptional but a normal part of undergraduate education at Harvard,” Kirby wrote in an e-mail.

He said he hoped the resolutions would prompt other departments to follow the lead of the history department.

“Such changes have to start somewhere, and History was ready to act, and indeed act with enthusiasm for these changes,” Kirby wrote in an e-mail.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.