Proposals for 2025 programs are closed
Proposals for 2026 programs will open in Spring 2025.
Contact global.seminars@ubc.ca to discuss your program ideas and plans. We look forward to hearing from you!
Global Seminars
In 2024, over 30 UBC-Vancouver faculty members are teaching courses in 25 countries. Over 350 students will be immersed in a new environment, learning about their academic discipline through first-hand experience.
Global Seminars are UBC accredited courses taught off-campus, in an international setting. Go Global has partnered with more than 60 different faculty members since 2012 to deliver Global Seminars in 30 countries. This program model gives UBC faculty a chance to set their classroom in a location that deepens learning, puts subject-matter in context and enriches the academic experience. Global Seminars often take place during the summer terms for two to six weeks, depending on the number of credits. Occasionally, travel happens during Reading Week for Term 2 courses.
Learn more about experiential learning.
UBC Associate Professor Bozena Karwowska’s “Witnessing Auschwitz,” a UBC Global Seminar on offer this summer. Read more.
Become a Global Seminar program director
Go Global provides faculty with support throughout the entire program cycle: from creation of new programs, promotion and recruitment, application management, budgeting, support in the field, and evaluation.
Go Global’s supports include:
- Guidance on program development and management
- Assistance with budget development
- Promotional materials, including social media toolkits
- Student application processing using UBC’s online Gateway application system
- Assistance with shortlisting and student selection
- Pre-departure programming for all selected students
- Expertise in UBC’s finance, student safety and student conduct policies and protocols
- Financial management of student fees, vendor payments, and travel advances
- Risk management and emergency assistance while programs are in the field to teaching staff and students
- Provide Go Global awards to eligible students
What are the responsibilities of faculty program directors (seminar leads)?
- Consider the risks related to the location and activities, and develop a safety plan, with the support of UBC’s Student Safety Abroad Manager
- Develop and maintain partnerships to support learning and program logistics in your destination
- Prepare a realistic program budget
- Obtain program approval and support from your department head
- Adapt the course syllabus for teaching in the field, including appropriate experiential learning activities
- Schedule program activities*
- Undertake appropriate due diligence regarding the safety and appropriateness of program sites and accommodations*
- Book accommodations and plan excursions*
- Book group transportation, if/when required,* and inform students about local transportation options (e.g. ride-share, taxi or public transport), when they need to arrange transportation independently
- Promote the program in your department
- Review student applications and select program participants along timelines provided by Go Global
- Lead and take charge of the student group in your destination*
- Provide reasonable care and support for program participants during the program while ensuring UBC’s duty of care responsibilities are met*
- Communicate changes in plans and any challenges with Go Global as situations arise
- Report serious safety incidents to Go Global within a reasonable timeframe
*often fees for local logistics support-people or salaries for student program assistants are factored into the budget to support program planning and operations.
Proposals for new programs currently closed
All faculty considering proposals for new programs in the future are encouraged to contact the Global Seminars team at Go Global for a brief consultation to discuss your plans and the proposal process. Get in touch at global.seminars@ubc.ca.
Proposals require:
- Statements describing the unique value of travel to the location for the learning outcomes of the related academic course
- Description of the activities that will take place in the field
- Information about local partners and collaborators
- A draft program itinerary
- A draft program budget
- A draft course syllabus, revised for an international context
Proposals are reviewed with consideration of the following:
- The unique value the Global Seminar will bring to the student experience
- Program viability: budget, logistics, prospects for recruitment, relationships/partnerships in the proposed location
- Student safety and risk management
- Commitment and participation of the program leads (faculty program directors)
- The capacity of Go Global to support the program
Program approval will require support from your home department or unit head and Go Global. As you consider preparing a Global Seminar proposal, please discuss your plans with your department or unit head with consideration of:
- Your teaching load
- Minimum course enrolment requirements
- Capacity of the department to support the program
- The department's academic goals
- Viability of student recruitment
- Other programs that may be approved or proposed
If you are interested in developing a Global Seminar, please get in touch with us for a consultation meeting at global.seminars@ubc.ca.
Eligible expenses
Eligible expenses are included in the budget and factored into the student program fee:
- Student and faculty accommodations in seminar locations
- Local/regional transportation costs during the program (e.g. buses, trains, flights, rental car, etc.)
- Fees for local support people, organizations and guest educators (e.g. logistics support, drivers, interpreters, guest lecturers, tour guides, etc.)
- Costs of excursions (e.g. park entrance, museum passes, festival tickets, etc.).
- Some student snacks and meals (no alcohol)
- Faculty travel costs: flights, accommodations, meals (per diem), SIM card, visas, etc.
- Student program assistant or TA travel costs: flights, accommodations, meals (per diem), SIM card, visas, etc.
- Student program assistant salary or honorarium
- Necessary teaching/research supplies and equipment
- Classroom rentals
- First aid and emergency supplies
- Reasonable training or professional development for members of the teaching/support team if required to lead the program
- 10% - 15% emergency contingency
Expenses that are not typically eligible are:
- Student flights from home/Vancouver to the program site
- Tuition
- Instructor/faculty salaries or course buy-outs
- Teaching Assistant salaries (If your course will have a TA, they must be hired by the department if taking on any instructional or academic support like grading)
- Alcohol
- Travel costs for family members travelling with students or faculty
- Childcare for students' or faculty members' children during the program or on-location
Arts Research Abroad (ARA)
The Arts Research Abroad (ARA) program aims to ensure that upper-level international research courses are accessible to academically qualified students, and that scholarly preparation and aspiration rather than financial means are the deciding factors for student participation. Funded by a generous gift from donors, the Faculty of Arts, and Go Global, the ARA program sponsors advanced research-intensive courses involving international travel. Advanced research-intensive courses are defined as courses that enable students to engage with the research positions and research practices of their discipline. Students work collegially with faculty to produce a potential contribution to knowledge in the field. Accordingly, the defining criterion of advanced research-intensive courses is not that students travel abroad and conduct research, but that students’ inquiries in the discipline result in new knowledge that could be shared with others in the field. For example, students could present a paper related to their research at a conference. Alternatively, students could participate in material practice or professional immersion, such as fieldwork, a practicum, or a performance project.
What is the difference between a course with a research paper and an advanced research-intensive course? The main product of a research-intensive course is a paper that one could imagine a student presenting at a conference—most impressively, a graduate student conference or a professional conference, but more likely an undergraduate student conference. The paper is not just an exploration of a topic, arguing a point, but an engagement with current research positions and research practices, contributing to the current conversation in the discipline: people would hear it this way at a conference. Accordingly, the course pays particular attention (or more attention than a non-research-intensive course) to the scholarly audience: how an analysis or finding would be read or heard by the discipline.
Typically, eligible Arts students in ARA-funded Global Seminar programs have up to 50% of program and travel costs covered by the program. A certain number of students with financial need (as defined by Enrolment Services) will have 100% of their costs covered.
Faculty of Arts Cultural Experience in France Grant
Thanks to the generous support of an anonymous donor, the Faculty of Arts will fund up to 14 Global Seminar programs in France between 2025 and 2028. The goal of this fund is to promote cultural exchange between France and Canada through intensive faculty-led credit-bearing study abroad programs like Global Seminars. Selected “Arts CEFG Seminars” will receive up to $65,000 to cover program and travel costs for eligible UBC Arts students. Depending on financial need and the cost of the program, students accepted into Arts CEFG Seminars may qualify to have 50%-100% of their individual program and travel costs covered.
Special criteria for Arts CEFG Global Seminars
Seminars must:
- include at least 2 weeks in France (portions of the program may take place on campus in Vancouver or elsewhere in the world)
- involve experiential learning activities
- be attached to an existing or new faculty of arts course at the 300- or 400-level
- promote cultural exchange between Canada and France:
- Special consideration may be given to programs that build on new or existing collaboration between UBC and academic or cultural organizations in France such as universities, research institutes, museums, community organizations, etc.
- Programs should include “share-back” activities in the Fall following the program where students have the opportunity to share their learning with the wider UBC Community
Promoting cultural exchange between Canada and France can take many forms. For example, UBC students may have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with French students, academics or professionals, or there could be a reciprocal component where students from France visit Vancouver.
Go Global awards
UBC students participating in Go Global international learning programs receive more than $1.4 million annually through scholarships and awards. Historically, Go Global has considered all Global Seminar students for the $1,000 Go Global Award.
Testimonials
From Global Seminars faculty:
"One of the most rewarding experiences of my career."
"I loved that (Go Global) had budget templates I could share with my partner organization abroad, handled all the money, helped with publicity and preparation for the program."
"As a faculty member, I personally find it important to leave the 'confines' of our classroom and work in a different (and more complicated) learning setting."
Read about previous Global Seminars
Contact
Mathew Lyle, Assistant Director, Faculty-Led and Strategic Programs
Fay Alikhani, Global Engagement Advisor, Global Seminars
global.seminars@ubc.ca