Faculty & Advisors

All Illinois-approved study abroad programs are for academic credit! To help students find programs that will keep them on track to graduate, it is helpful for them to understand what types of courses they may need to take while abroad. Do they need major or minor requirements, gen eds, advanced hours, or can they take all electives? Once we know that, we can tailor their program search to find the right fit! 

This is especially important for full semester programs. A full overview of the process can be found on the Plan Your Courses webpage. 

Each semester, ACES welcomes exchange students from around the world to study here for a semester or a full year. Exchange students work with the advisors at their home institutions to identify Illinois/ACES courses that will meet their academic needs. Exchange students then register themselves for classes via the Illinois Self-Service System when their time tickets open. 

ACES Study Abroad can provide some minimal guidance to exchange students based on information that is available in the course catalog, but we do not provide comprehensive academic advising. If exchange students have questions about building their schedules, getting overrides, or requesting permission for graduate-level classes, we typically put them in touch with the Department directly. Exchange students often take classes in a wide range of subjects in ACES and across campus, so it is not always possible to assign them one specific advisor. 

If you have questions about the Exchange Student registration process, please email Christy Murray at murray52@illinois.edu.

Coming soon!

ACES Study Abroad has created a Canvas site that you can use to incorporate study abroad into your courses, build a short-term faculty-led pre-departure course, and explore the curricular benefits of Global Classrooms! 

 ACES Study Abroad Instructional Resources

You can copy the modules directly into your own canvas site and then modify them as needed to suit your course. You can also request to have someone from ACES Study Abroad visit your class to talk about study abroad! 

If you would like to be added to the Canvas site or request a classroom presentation, please email Ali Freter at freter1@illinois.edu. 

Coming Soon!

ACES Students Going Abroad:

• As of the 2024-2025 academic year, 36.8% of ACES students study abroad before they graduate! This percentage is reported in the CMI each year on line 4990 with ACES selected as the unit. Nationally, only 10% of students study abroad before they graduate, so this is an exciting statistic and another example of the direct impact of your support! 

Exchange Students Coming to ACES:

• In academic year 2025-2026, 52 students came to ACES on exchange from 11 different partner institutions around the world. 
• The most common majors of the exchange students are Agricultural Engineering, Food Science, and Animal Science. 
• The top sending countries are Ireland, China, The Netherlands, and South Korea. 

The ACES Study Abroad Office is excited to introduce a new program designed for ACES Academic Advisors! The program will include a series of workshops throughout the spring 2026 semester and a group site visit to a partner institution in Greece in July. 

This program is specifically focused on full semester and full summer programs, not short-term faculty-led programs. The overarching objective is to create more streamlined pathways for your students to identify study abroad opportunities that will meet their academic, personal, and professional goals. 

More Information & Application

The ACES Study Abroad Office is excited to introduce a new program aimed at expanding and enhancing our portfolio of short-term faculty-led study abroad programs for undergraduate ACES students. The program goals are to gradually increase the number of these high-impact practices based in experiential learning, help new leaders get off to a strong start that is founded in best practice and supports their own research/teaching goals, and foster a community of program leaders in this unique space.

This program is designed for faculty or staff in the College of ACES who have never led a study abroad program before but who are interested in designing a new course or modifying an existing course to include a short-term study abroad component. Faculty and staff who have previous experience leading short-term programming will be considered if they are designing a new program and would like to participate, but priority will be for new leaders. 

More Information & Application   

ACES expanding international experiences for undergraduate students

ACES has a long history of running short-term faculty-led study abroad opportunities, which is a big part of why we have such a high percentage of ACES students who study abroad before they graduate! These programs include an 8 or 16-week pre-departure course in the semester immediately preceding travel and then the travel component is typically 10 days to 2 weeks in length over winter, spring, or summer break. This format makes these programs accessible to a wide array of students. You can create a new course or incorporate a study abroad opportunity into an existing course.

Candidates with a current instruction and/or advising appointment with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus in one of the following employment categories are eligible to lead short-term programs abroad.

• Tenured and tenure-track faculty
• Specialized and adjunct faculty
• Instructors
• Academic professionals (master’s required)

The ideal planning timeline for a brand-new program is 18 - 24 months. If you are interested in developing a short-term faculty-led program, please email Ali Freter at freter1@illinois.edu. 

The majority of full semester and full summer study abroad programs in the College of ACES were initiated thanks to faculty research connections with institutions abroad. The process for developing a new full semester or full summer program includes, but is not limited to: 

• A comprehensive review of academic alignment with ACES majors and the available courses in English
• The on-site environment including academic infrastructure, student life programming/support, and cross-cultural engagement
• Thorough vetting of health and safety protocol to ensure compliance with Illinois requirements
• A discussion with the host institution about their interest and partnership goals, enrollment capacity, and the possibility for a reciprocal exchange 
• Review of the existing ACES/campus study abroad portfolio to ensure the program location, offerings, and cost would be competetive
• A site visit may or may not be required depending on a variety of factors

If you work with an institution abroad and would like to discuss the possibility of developing a full semester or full summer study abroad program, please email Ali Freter at freter1@illinois.edu. 

Illinois Global Classrooms is a collaborative online international learning (COIL) initiative aimed at supporting students and faculty to structure collaborative international learning experiences, facilitated by technology, between students at the University of Illinois and students from international partner institutions. As part of a Global Classroom, you connect virtually with an international partner who teaches in a similar or complementary discipline to develop a project with concrete goals and deliverables and implement it in one of your existing courses. Projects vary in scope and duration, but typically last between six and eight weeks. Courses can be fully online, hybrid, or part of a faculty-led study abroad program. 

ACES Study Abroad can assist with everything from identifying a partner institution to adapting curriculum. If you are interested in developing a Global Classroom, please email Ali Freter at freter1@illinois.edu.