Faculty Opportunities with Tufts Global Education
International short-term programs engage faculty and students beyond the classroom through experiential learning, site visits, research collaborations, and intercultural exchange.
This type of education abroad provides faculty with the rewarding time to reach and connect with students in the field with community-based learning. Faculty spend more time with students, expanding beyond the traditional classroom, and become advisors and mentors. We find that faculty often weave their research areas and international partners into the course design. In many cases, faculty find that creating a student program with international colleagues or a new partner generates future faculty or institutional collaborations.
These immersive and intensive programs not only expose students to new topics and research opportunities but cultivate global awareness and intercultural development. Many students do not study abroad for an entire term due to other obligations, financial constraints, and academic requirements. These transformative short-term programs provide access, diversify student participation, and often launch students into other global pathways.
Tufts Global Education welcomes course proposals and will support faculty with the international program development. If you wish to discuss next steps, please email GlobalEducation@tufts.edu and we look forward to working together.
Short-Term Abroad Program Models
Two primary types of short-term abroad programs:
| Stand-alone programs | Stand-alone short-term programs are typically credit-bearing programs that provide international learning opportunities without being part of another course within the academic year. Stand-alone programs often (but not exclusively) occur in winter or summer terms. |
| Embedded programs | Embedded programs are where the travel and learning content is built in as a component of a larger credit-bearing course. Students may participate in the short-term program if they seek full credit for the course in which they enrolled. |
These programs might be delivered in three distinct ways:
| Faculty-led and taught | International academic program in which a faculty member takes a group of students to another country and leads a credit-bearing course. This type of program may also be designed to be co-taught with an international partner and/or include local students. |
| Faculty facilitator / staff member | International academic program in which a faculty member and/or a staff member takes a group of students to study in another country. In such a scenario, the Tufts faculty or staff member would be required to take an active role in the student learning by offering co-curricular activities, guest lectures, site visits, and excursions. |
| Faculty-inspired, provider-run | In such a scenario, a faculty member would suggest an idea or course design for a short-term abroad program that complements the curriculum of the targeted students, but is implemented by a third-party provider, i.e., another university or study abroad provider. |
How might faculty propose a program?
Faculty are invited to schedule a meeting with Mala Ghosh, Associate Dean and submit a preliminary proposal outline. When drafting the proposal, it is important to highlight the following:
| Basic Program Description | Overview of the program, if relevant please include a description of a partner institution/organization, list the sponsoring academic unit(s), tentative dates and duration of the program, and estimated number of students. |
| Rationale | Learning objectives for conducting the course abroad, note any site visits/excursions, and discuss potential student interest. |
| Eligibility | Please include any academic prerequisites and if it could be open to non-Tufts students. |
| Academics | Please outline a tentative course syllabus, including any experiential learning opportunities, internships, or service learning. |
Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about offering a faculty-led short-term program or if you would like to suggest a short-term program.
Global Integrated Learning & Design (GILD)
Global Integrated Learning & Design (GILD) is an initiative designed to encourage and support faculty in creating course-based experiential learning and/or co-curricular research opportunities that are international, cross-cultural, often interdisciplinary, and enhance students’ capacities to engage in complex problems. Faculty partner with other faculty or staff in a university or organization in another country to design a learning experience as part of their course or research program, and students collaborate across cultural, usually national, boundaries to meet the learning objectives through a variety of techniques. This initiative is jointly supported by the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), Tufts Global Education, and the Office of the Provost. This opportunity is open to all Tufts faculty.