OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
The University places strong emphasis on the international dimensions in all branches of learning. The philosophy underlying international education at the University is that study at the university level mandates a cross-cultural approach and that international education plays a significant role in all of the arts and sciences. Where the international dimension is missing, the education is incomplete and may be compared to teaching of an experimental science without laboratory or field experience.
Close contacts with universities in other countries provide for study abroad in all the major centers of culture throughout the world. Students enrolled on one of the State University campuses are able to participate in any of the programs administered by other campuses throughout the State University system. Programs currently administered by the Albany campus are those in Brazil (University of Brasilia and University of Campinas), Costa Rica (University of Costa Rica), Denmark (Aalbory University and the University of Copenhagen), Dominican Republic (Universidad P.H. Urena), England (University of Hull and the University of Plymouth and University of Nottingham), Finland (Abo Akademi University and the University of Oulu), France (University of Grenoble and University of Strasbourg), Germany (University of Würzburg, Braunschweig Technical University, and Freie University of Berlin), Hungary (University of Budapest), Israel (Bar Ilan University, Ben Gurion University, Hebrew University, University of Haifa, and Tel Aviv University), Japan (Kansai University of Foreign Studies in Osaka), Korea (Yonsei University), Netherlands (Högeschool Gelderland in Nijmegen and Tilburg University in Tilburg), Norway (University of Bergen), People's Republic of China (Fudan University in Shanghai, Nankai University in Tianjin, Nanjing University, Peking University and Beijing Normal University in Beijing), Puerto Rico (University of the Sacred Heart), Russia (Moscow State University), Scotland (University of Glasgow), Singapore (National University), Spain (Complutense University and the International Institute in Madrid, and the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Valladolid), Sweden (Goteborg University and Lund University), and Wales (University of Swansea).
Intensive language programs are conducted during the summer in Germany and Russia. Although these programs are primarily designed for undergraduates, graduate students have often enrolled in them for no credit in order to gain a working knowledge of a foreign language.
The Office of International Programs does not itself normally grant graduate credit unless specifically requested to do so by the departmental chair of the student's degree program. Graduate students pursuing graduate study abroad through one of Albany's overseas programs usually must register for a minimum of three credits in an appropriate course or independent study within their department, concurrently with a zero credit international programs course which identifies the specific overseas program.