In third year Humanities students are encouraged to enhance their educational experience and expand their understanding of the world by going on exchange to a foreign university. After their exchange, student transfers their foreign credits back into their Bachelor of Humanities degree. Humanities students have studied in The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Turkey, Australia, India, Ghana, and Tanzania.
Study Abroad Opportunities
International Student Services Office (ISSO)
Carleton University offers an Exchange Program with approximately 140 partner institutions in more than 35 countries around the globe. The Exchange Program allows Carleton University students (undergraduate and graduate) to study full-time at a partner institution for a single semester (fall or winter) or for a full academic year. Exchange students pay tuition to Carleton University and earn credits toward their Carleton degree.
Exchanges are coordinated through the International Student Services Office. Please see their website for application instructions.
Study Philosophy in Leuven, Belgium
In addition to the ISSO exchanges, the College has a special Study Year Abroad Program at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Belgium, where up to ten students a year may study philosophy in English, in many cases completing the majority of a Bachelor of Humanities with a Combined Honours in Philosophy.
Note: The Humanities-Leuven program is temporarily in abeyance. It will resume as soon as possible.
Study Abroad Credits and your Humanities Degree
Letter of Permission
No matter which exchange you go on, you must plan to transfer the credits you take abroad back into your Carleton degree. The procedure for this at Carleton is called a Letter of Permission (LOP). You must apply for a Letter of Permission before you go on exchange, effectively pre-approving your course choices for use in your Carleton degree. For detailed instructions, the deadline, and to apply, visit the Registrar’s Letter of Permission page.
Honours, Combined Honours, or Study Year Abroad Stream?
Normally students will take the equivalent of 5.0 credits while abroad. In order to transfer these credits back into your Carleton degree, you have to have the same number of credits in unsatisfied degree requirements that could reasonably be replaced.
The Letter of Permission process is designed to make sure this is the case. However, when applying for a LOP, you have to decide which courses you will propose to take abroad and which Carleton courses these will replace. Possible courses will depend on whether you are doing the Honours, Combined Honours, or Study Year Abroad stream.
In general, you can use any course taken abroad in place of a free elective. You can take any course at the appropriate year level for a leveled elective, such as “1.0 credit at the 2000-level or above.” For an actual degree requirement, such as “HUMS 3200 European Literature,” you must find a course abroad at the same level or higher, with course content that matches the course to be replaced, at least to some degree. There is a lot of flexibility in this, but you can’t substitute a Philosophy course for a Literature course, for example.
Please consult the Degree Progression Charts [LINK TO:<2.2 Degree Progression Charts>] for a visual guide to which credits you have to choose from. However, remember that the authoritative list of degree requirements that apply to you is given on your degree audit.
- Honours: If you are in the Honours stream, you have a total of 4.0 credits in electives normally taken in your 3rd and 4th year. Select one further credit from your Humanities requirements to be replaced by an exchange course. When you return to Carleton, you should have 5.0 Humanities requirements left to complete in your 4th year. Note that you are not permitted to replace either HUMS 3000 or HUMS 4000 with exchange courses.
- Combined Honours: If you are in the Combined Honours stream, you will need to find a combination of 5.0 credits from Humanities and from your Combined subject that could reasonably be replaced by exchange courses. Note that you are not permitted to replace either HUMS 3000 or HUMS 4000 with exchange courses.
- Study Year Abroad: This stream is a variation of the Honours degree that gives you an extra 1.0 credit in electives, in place of the 4th-year Research Seminar requirements. This stream is useful if your chosen institution has no credits that can substitute for a 3rd or 4th year Humanities requirement.
Please note that these are general guidelines, and you must meet with the Humanities Undergraduate Advisor to make sure you are on the right path.
Journalism and Humanities, Biology and Humanities
Students in the Bachelor of Journalism and Humanities or in the Bachelor of Humanities and Biology are permitted to study abroad. However, both of these versions of the Humanities degree have a large number of requirements that can only be taken at Carleton. Consequently, it is normally not possible to find a full 5.0 credits that can be replaced by courses taken abroad, and students will normally have to complete their degree either by taking courses in the summer or through a 5th year of study.
Meet with the Undergraduate Advisor
If you are thinking of going abroad, please schedule an appointment with the Humanities Undergraduate Advisor via Calendly, to make sure things go smoothly. If you need to cancel your appointment, email Andrea McIntyre to let her know.