Undergraduate Course Catalog 2012-2013
Special University Programs
International Affairs (dual major) (IA)
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Lecturer: Mary Wallace
The Center for International Education (CIE) offers undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue a dual major in international affairs. The dual major requires completion of the interdisciplinary International Affairs Program and any other major. The purpose of the program is to expand students’ global horizons, enhance their disciplinary major, and expand their career opportunities into the international arena. The courses in the dual major program are multidisciplinary, taught by faculty from many different departments in the University. They are designed to help students appreciate the complex interrelationships and interdependencies among nations and peoples and to equip students with the analytical skills and broad perspectives necessary for both public and private sector international careers.
Students who wish to declare international affairs dual major must earn a C or better in IA 401, have declared (or be prepared to declare) a disciplinary major, and have a 2.5 cumulative grade-point average. After declaration, students are expected to maintain at least a 2.5 grade-point average, which is also the minimum required for study abroad at UNH.
IA Dual Major Requirements
For students who matriculated into UNH prior to fall semester 2010, please refer to the undergraduate catalog of your year of matriculation to see the IA dual major requirements that apply for you. For those who matriculated into UNH fall 2010 or later, please see below:
Required Core Courses (4 total)
IA 401, International Perspectives: Science, Geography, and Politics
IA 501, Global Issues in International Affairs
IA 701, Seminar in International Affairs
ECON 401A, Principles of Economics (Macro), or ECON 402A, Principles of Economics (Micro), or EREC 411
Please note: IA 401, a prerequisite for IA 501, should be taken no later than spring of the sophomore year. IA 501 should be taken prior to foreign experience.
Electives (3 total)
Choose one elective course from each category below:
Foreign Area (to be taken prior to foreign experience)
Science, Technology, and the Private Sector
Policy and Theory in International Affairs
Courses used to satisfy International Affairs elective requirements must be from outside the student's disciplinary major(s). Students pursuing two disciplinary majors in addition to International Affairs may count one of the courses in either disciplinary major as an International Affairs elective. For any major with 14 or more required courses (or 56 or more required credit hours), the IA program permits counting a maximum of three courses or 12 credits from the major program as International Affairs electives.
Competency in a Foreign Language
Functional reading, writing, and speaking ability equivalent to a third-year, second-semester college level (632)
Foreign Experience
Minimum of eight weeks.The International Affairs foreign experience is ordinarily conducted in a country consistent with the student’s language study but may also be conducted in a select list of countries where English is an official language or where UNH does not offer language training. Students who desire to study in such a country must petition the Center for International Education. Plans of study must include rigorous local language training while in-country.
The foreign experience (usually completed during the junior year) and the foreign language requirement are completed before taking IA 701 in the senior year. To acquire the knowledge, skills, and experience that come from residence in a foreign culture, students may spend an academic year, semester, or summer in an academic institution, in an internship with a private or public organization, or in purposeful travel/research. All foreign experiences must be pre-approved by the IA major adviser or the University Committee on International Studies.
Beginning in the summer of 2012, IA students will have the opportunity to fulfill the foreign experience requirement (as well as some IA electives and Discovery requirements) through an eight-week, 10-credit CIE managed program in Costa Rica (ICDS) focusing on sustainability and human development. Please see the CIE website for details: www.unh.edu/cie.
The completion of the dual major requires no additional credits for graduation beyond the 128 required of all UNH students. All coursework required for International Affairs must be completed with a grade of C or better. For information, contact the Center for International Education, Hood House, (603) 862-2398, www.unh.edu/cie.
*The Department of Civil Engineering has worked with the UNH Center for International Education to develop a dual-major program in Civil Engineering and International Affairs. Civil Engineering students participating in this program spend at least one semester studying abroad in a foreign language. Students can complete the International Affairs dual major in five years or less and do not need to have pre-existing skills in a foreign language before coming to UNH. For more information, contact Ray Cook at (603) 862-1411 or by e-mail to ray.cook@unh.edu.
