COURSE HOT LINKS
COURSE APPROVALS & DATABASE OF APPROVED COURSES
COURSE APPROVAL FORM

COURSE APPROVAL OVERVIEW

All non-Duke courses taken abroad receive transfer credit and must be approved through the Office of Study Abroad before you leave Duke to study abroad. Only courses that have been approved will be transferred to your Duke transcript. If you postpone approvals until you return, there is no guarantee of credit.

For all transfer credits, it is your responsibility to do the following:

• Verify that all the courses you plan to take abroad are in the Database of Approved Courses available either in the Office of Study Abroad (OSA), or online. If they are, you need do nothing more.
• If the course(s) is (are) not contained in the database, you will need to provide the Office of Study Abroad with an official description of each course, which will come from the program guide, course catalogue, bulletin, or syllabus (if you can request these of the program in advance). OSA will consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) of the appropriate department at Duke who will determine the course number under which the course will transfer. This number will be either an exact Duke equivalent, or 888 (lower-level) or 999 (upper-level). At this time the value of the course will also be determined, as will area of knowledge if applicable. Independent Study Courses, Field Study, and Internships will not carry area of knowledge designations.(Transfer Course Approval Form)
• Request that a transcript of courses with final grades from the program you attended be sent to the Office of Study Abroad, Duke University, Box 90057, Durham, NC 27708-0057; generally programs do not mail transcripts automatically. Only courses that have been approved will be transferred to your Duke transcript.

Students interested in receiving Modes of Inquiry codes for approved courses must apply for any of the codes, including the FL code. For more about what is required to request Modes of Inquiry coding for transfer courses, visit http://t-reqs.trinity.duke.edu/documents/TransferModesofInquiryForm_003.pdf. The request process for Modes of Inquiry is separate from requesting course approvals for your study abroad courses.

Instructions for using the database

The above link will take you to a searchable database of pre-approved courses for study abroad. This database is searchable by Duke department, country of study, or specific program. The drop-down menus will guide you in finding what you are searching for. If you have any questions about having courses approved, or if you have problems using the database, please contact Cathy Penny in the Office of Study Abroad.

This database is not comprehensive. You should feel free to look at the entire listing of courses for any study abroad program. Generally, if a course is not already in the database, it means that no student has taken it yet. You may want to use this database as a guide after you have selected your courses.

Last revised: 13 December 2007