Wharton adds study-abroad options

New programs were created for students to study in England, Argentina and Hong Kong. Finance in Frankfort? OPIM at Oxford? For Wharton students interested in taking a full business curriculum while studying abroad, such options will now be possible. At a meeting yesterday, Wharton faculty culminated a three-year negotiation process by approving plans for four new student-exchange programs with Oxford University in England; Chinese University in Hong Kong; San Andres University in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Johann Wolfgang Goeth University in Frankfort, Germany. The business school's study-abroad programs provide an opportunity for a small number of Wharton students to combine the study of language with courses that may be used to satisfy Wharton's business requirements. And similar arrangements will enable foreign students at participating schools to study at Penn. Each university may send and accept a maximum of two students per year. The new Wharton-sponsored exchange programs will bring the total number of international Wharton programs for undergraduates to seven, as the school is already involved in successful ventures in Italy, France and Spain. Although other University study-abroad programs offer courses for students with a basic command of a foreign language, Wharton's program will be geared to those students who have a "higher level" of understanding, according to Wharton Deputy Dean Janice Bellace. Bellace said the new sites were chosen for a number of different reasons . "Having [Wharton courses] in Buenos Aires, Latin America, will meet student demand for students who know the language well," she said, noting that Spanish is the No. 1 language in which Wharton students achieve proficiency. Hong Kong is also popular for Wharton students to study and the new exchange program will allow students to take business courses in both Chinese and English, Bellace said. The program at Oxford's Saide School of Business will be that school's first official exchange program with any university. Bellace pointed out that the European Union's new bank in Frankfort is a reason Wharton wanted to establish a presence in the German city. The new exchange programs "open opportunities for [Wharton] students to study abroad but graduate on time," she added. Wharton added new language and global environment requirements in 1991 -- for which students must take three liberal arts courses that have a 20th century, international focus -- and at that time many Wharton students expressed interest in studying abroad, Bellace said. But she said the school's numerous business requirements made it extremely difficult for Wharton students since "most of Penn's study-abroad programs are designed for students in the [School of] Arts and Sciences." In the past, "very few Wharton student studied abroad," she said. "Now, between 15 percent and 20 percent do. And for a business school, that is very unusual."

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