University of Delaware Institute for Global Studies
Spring 2025: DIS Copenhagen

Program Dates January 11, 2025 - May 10, 2025
This program is closed.

Program Overview This program is highly competitive and will accept only a limited number of applicants. Interview appointments and acceptance decisions are at the discretion of the faculty director.

Program Quick Facts

Min GPA	3.0
Visa Required/Fee	Yes
Internships Offered	No
Move-in Date	01/11/2025
Orientation	01/12/2025 - 01/15/2025
Classes Start	01/16/2025
Add/Drop	https://disabroad.org/copenhagen/student-resource/academic-regulations/course-enrollment-grading/
Last Day of Classes	05/08/2025
Move out Date	05/09/2025

Passport
All applicants must have a valid passport by the program’s application deadline. Your passport’s expiration date must be more than six months after the program ends. If you do not have a current passport, apply through the U.S. State Department. It takes an average of 10 - 13 weeks (3-4 months) to process a passport.

Residency Permit
A visa and a residency permit are required. After arrival in Denmark, DIS will arrange for you to receive a Residency Permit that will cover all medical-related costs. The estimated fee for the permit is $365.

Covid-19
Please review the CGPS COVID-19 Updates page before applying to a study abroad program for information about COVID-19 related travel requirements and policies for UD study abroad.

Traveling and studying abroad during a global pandemic poses new challenges and requires accepting a higher level of uncertainty than in the past. Students who choose to study abroad at this time must be prepared to adapt to the evolving situation and must take responsibility to act in accordance with the rules, regulations, and recommendations of UD, their program leadership, and legal authorities of their home and host country. Due to the rapidly changing and unpredictable global and local response to COVID-19, these rules, regulations and recommendations are subject to change at any time.

The University will continue to monitor the ongoing situation with COVID-19 (coronavirus) as we approach the departure date for this program. Please reach out to your program coordinator or faculty director with questions and continue to monitor the UD coronavirus webpage for updates. If UD decides to cancel a study abroad program, we will communicate directly with affected students.

DIS Study Abroad (DIS) is a UD-affiliated study abroad program offered every fall and spring semester (or for a full year) that allows the opportunity to study with a geographically diverse group of students from across North America and other countries, attend a broad spectrum of courses taught in English, and experience continental European life in the clean, picturesque, and very livable city of Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1959 and loosely affiliated with the University of Copenhagen, DIS is located in the medieval heart of Denmark's capital, a city of one and half million. It occupies several restored historic buildings that contain administrative offices, a reference and study library, student lounges, computer labs (providing free email and Internet access), an academic advising center, and some classrooms.

In many ways DIS is organized like an American university, with course credits, semesters, and instruction in English. Faculty are mostly Danish, but many have spent time at North American universities. In addition, DIS boasts an extensive academic and student life staff to assist participants as needed. Students come from dozens of private and public universities across the United States.

Copenhagen is a vibrant city of thriving pedestrian streets, outdoor cafes, jazz clubs, ethnic restaurants, museums, historic cathedrals and castles. Danes are famous for their sense of design, gourmet combinations of food and drink, and humane politics. Denmark has a foot in many camps: it is part of Scandinavia yet occupies a central position on the mainland of continental Europe; it faces both the Baltic and the North Sea, straddling an East-West cultural axis. A small country of just over 5 million, it makes no pretense to dominate by military or economic means, but rather seeks to lead through the advancement of cultural values of tolerance and empathy for others. Danes have been major supporters of United Nations efforts to bring peace to warring countries and exceeds the United States in overseas development aid on a per capita basis. Lively debates about world affairs can be anticipated in coffee houses and around kitchen tables across the country.

The attraction of DIS as a study abroad opportunity is the wide diversity of programs and courses it offers that span the Sciences to the Humanities. Students begin by selecting a core program from the following list:

• Architecture & Design
• Art & Visual Culture
• Biomedicine
• Business
• Child Development & Diversity
• Communication
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Environmental Science of the Arctic
• Finance
• Furniture Design
• Graphic Design
• Holocaust & GenocideInnovation & Entrepreneurship
• Justice & Human Rights
• Literature
• Medical Practice & Policy
• Neuroscience
• Politics & Security
• Prostitution & the Sex Trade
• Psychology
• Public Health
• Sociology
• Sustainability
• Urban Studies

Each core program has a required core course. Because the DIS program has a strongly applied approach, each core program includes a week-long study tour to explore the program topic in another country outside Denmark, or within Denmark depending on current travel restrictions, as well as a shorter study tour to a regional location within Denmark or Southern Sweden.

Other elective courses to round out a student’s academic program can be selected from the approximately 240 courses DIS offers each semester from across 70 disciplines. DIS has also offered Exploration Electives with 3-day travel to other locations outside Denmark included in the cost of tuition.

A very well-organized orientation begins each semester, greeting students at the Copenhagen airport, introducing them to their housing of choice, providing a crash course on survival Danish, culture and customs, outlining the nature of the academic program and its opportunities, and offering an "Amazing Race"-style exploration of the city of Copenhagen.

Housing and Meals
Students attending DIS have four different housing options and are required to select three, ranked in order of preference, on their DIS application. Many students stay with host families who often become life-long friends. Alternatively, students may stay in a Kollegium (a student cooperative similar to a residence hall, but with more individual autonomy), a Living and Learning Community similar to small theme-focused housing, or a DIS Residential Community with other DIS students.All students are required to stay in program sponsored housing, independent housing arrangements are not allowed by UD or the program partners

Students who choose a home stay with a Danish family can expect the kind of experience that is at the core of studying abroad. Being part of the daily life of a foreign family, learning its habits, sharing its daily concerns, household chores and festive moments, getting involved in dinner conversations and debates - in brief, experiencing a foreign culture from the inside instead of observing it from the outside - will give you incomparable personal and intercultural insights and skills. And, it's a two-way street. Families, very carefully chosen by DIS staff, sign-up to be host families because they believe in the kind of intercultural exchange that occurs when having a foreign student living with them.

All meals are covered in the homesay. For the other housing options, meals are not included in the housing fee. Instead, DIS provides a grocery card valid at several local supermarket chains and valued at approximately $600. For more details regarding housing options, visit the DIS website which contains detailed descriptions and videos of life in each housing opportunity.

Experiential Learning
Semester-long study abroad programs may offer opportunities for more immersive experiences such as community service engagement. Many such opportunities exist with DIS. To become more acquainted with the Danish people, DIS can provide resources for students to join local athletic leagues or help them get involved in the community as a volunteer. A visiting family program can connect students through dinners and family excursions with a Danish family for those who choose a housing option other than homestay. Finally, DIS arranges social activities throughout the year, including arrival and farewell parties, a Danish Christmas luncheon, a picnic in the former royal hunting grounds, and a Danish-style Mardi Gras (Fastelavn).

DIS also offers a 3-credit research opportunity in which students collaborate with DIS faculty on projects in a variety of fields including public health, gender studies, psychology, justice and human rights, and environmental science. Topics vary by semester. Approval of the research course by UD is not guaranteed and must be approved by the appropriate UD department.

Language
English is widely spoken by Danes throughout Copenhagen, and you will have no difficulty interacting with people you meet or with your host family, if that is your choice. In addition, all DIS courses are taught in English. You may wish to take a Danish course as part of your program, but it is sometimes hard to practice on Danes because invariably they will reply in English.

Calendar
Fall semester runs from mid-August through mid-December. Spring semester goes from mid-January through mid-May. See the DIS website for exact dates.

Travel and Transportation
As part of your housing fee, DIS will provide you with a monthly transit pass to use between your housing and DIS classes, OR students may choose to use a DIS bicycle and receive a small stipend for required trips on public transportation. Copenhagen, and Denmark as a whole, has a dense and highly efficient network of buses and trains that allow easy movement around the city. In addition, many Danes use bicycles along well-defined bike paths for short urban trips. Inexpensive used bikes can be purchased in Denmark and resold, often at no loss, upon departure. Copenhagen is also central to many other European destinations that can be reached via ferries and express trains.

Students are responsible for their own roundtrip airfare between the U.S. and Copenhagen; airport pick-up at the start of the program is included in the program fee.

For more information about the DIS program from a student's perspective, check out the UDAbroad blog posts from past participants, as well as from a spring 2019 DIS student blogger from UD.

ACCESSIBILITY: Students with disabilities are welcomed and encouraged to study abroad, but should be aware that accessibility and accommodation in some program locations may differ from the United States. Transit systems and legacy building construction practices may not meet U.S. accessibility standards, and alternative access to public transportation, buildings, or public sites cannot be guaranteed. Review these questions with the Office of Disability Support Services to determine whether this program can meet your accommodation needs. In addition, see information about DIS' disability services on their website.

Courses: All students must enroll in the 0-credit course UNIV 550 (placeholder for this travel study experience) and UNIV 372 (Discovery Learning marker). All DIS courses are taught in English (except for Danish language courses), and offerings can vary from semester to semester. Students must take a minimum of 12 credit hours and courses must be for credit, not pass-fail. As a UD program, all DIS courses completed with a grade of C or better will transfer back to UD and be placed on a student’s UD transcript. UD's Registrars Office maintains a course equivalency matrix for DIS courses taken by UD students in the past (which transfer as courses from DIS' school of record, the University of Minnesota, and appear in the matrix list as INTL-US-DIS).

Before committing to the program students are encouraged to meet with their academic advisor or assistant dean to ensure that credits earned on the program will facilitate their progress towards graduation. Students wishing to take courses that do not appear in the matrix must pursue transfer credit approval. It is the student's responsibility to secure the necessary UD transfer credit permissions prior to departure according to UD's standard transfer credit procedure, and to have an official transcript from the host institution sent to UD upon the conclusion of the semester abroad.

Program Costs:




Contact Information:


Deadlines:
Submit Program Application by 5pm on September 10, 2024
Recommendation also due by 5pm on September 10, 2024

Please note that this program is highly competitive and will accept only a limited number of applicants. Interview appointments and acceptance decisions are at the discretion of the faculty director.



Interest Meetings:
05/09/2024, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Zoom Link: https://udel.zoom.us/j/94358474053
05/10/2024, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM, Zoom Link: https://udel.zoom.us/j/97668180319


Program information is subject to change at any time. Please check this web site periodically for updates.