By Larry B. Dendy
UGA will begin its first year-round residential study-abroad program this fall at Oxford University in England.
Students and faculty participating in the program will live in a three-story Victorian house UGA has purchased--pending approval of the University System Board of Regents--in the heart of the city of Oxford and designated as the UGA Study Abroad Center at Oxford.
 The purchase of the house, located about a mile from Oxford City Centre, was made possible by the University of Georgia Foundation, which will lease the house to the university.
The 5,443-square-foot brick structure has 10 furnished rooms, each with private baths and mini-kitchens, and is located close to cultural, educational and shopping facilities. It is the first facility UGA has owned in another country that will be used exclusively for international education.
UGA faculty members will participate in the study-abroad program by teaching courses and conducting research and related scholarly activities at Oxford. Both students and faculty will have associate memberships at Jesus College and Keble College, two affiliated institutions that provide access to libraries, dining halls and cultural, social and athletic activities.
Students will live in the house during two 12-week semester sessions and a six-week summer session. Most rooms will accommodate three students, meaning that 75-80 students will live in the house each year. Another 50-75 will stay at Jesus College.
At other times, the house will be used for alternate academic programs.
UGA will be one of only four American schools--and the only public institution--with a year-round residential study program at Oxford. The other schools are Stanford, Boston University and Williams College.
Located in south-central England on the Thames River, Oxford University has been a center of scholarly inquiry for 800 years. It is the university where winners of the Rhodes Scholarship study.
Obtaining permanent living space for students and visiting faculty was a key to starting the year-round residential study program, one of the top goals set by UGA President Michael F. Adams when he came to Georgia in 1997.
UGA has long had study-abroad programs at Oxford and other international locations in which courses are taught for only one or two terms. The Oxford program is the first in which academic programs will be available throughout the academic year.
The decision to locate the first full-year residential center in Oxford grew out of recommendations from a committee Adams appointed last year to suggest ways to strengthen the university’s study-abroad activities. Oxford was chosen as the site of the first year-round residential program because of its popularity with students and faculty, its high national visibility and the opportunity to immediately start the program.
UGA began a summer study-abroad program at Oxford in 1989 and added a spring program in 1994.
“The Oxford program is very selective and competitive, and there have always been more applicants than can be accommodated,” says Judith Shaw, the English professor who directs the program. “Students who are chosen are fortunate to take part in a rigorous but very rewarding program of study.”
Adams says offering programs year-round at Oxford should help increase the 3.7 percent of UGA undergraduates who now spend time studying in other countries.
“Study abroad is one of the most valuable educational experiences a student can have, but we have not been able to make this opportunity available to as many students as we would like,” Adams says. “The opportunity to offer courses for a full academic year will help achieve our goal of having up to 10 percent of undergraduates take part in a foreign residential study experience.”
Study-abroad students will be able to tailor their own curriculum, drawing from Oxford’s vast menu of courses that include British literature, history and political science, as well as classes in anthropology, architecture, biology, mathematics, religion and sociology.
Students will attend lecture classes taught by visiting American professors and also take tutorials led by Oxford dons. They also will take advantage of such academically related activities as a student-run Shakespeare festival, special dinners, and trips to historic and cultural sites.
The first fall program at Oxford will run Sept. 12-Dec. 3, 1999. The cost of the fall semester will be $5,800, which includes tuition, room and meals, library fees and associate membership at Keble College.
Financial aid that is normally available at UGA also should be available for the Oxford program, Shaw says.
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