Study Abroad Credit Approval

The information on this page is relevant to students who studied abroad up through Fall 2020. 

Starting Spring 2021, there’s a new and completely different credit approval system.  See the Study Abroad website for information, and be aware that you still must take a placement test on return for DAMES language credit.

The instructions on this page are for UNC students who have gone on a study abroad program (other than UNC faculty-led programs) through the UNC Study Abroad Office. 

So you’re returning from a UNC-approved study abroad program, and you want to get the credit approved so that it counts toward your major, minor, or foreign language requirement.  And perhaps you also want to figure out what language course you can continue on with back at Carolina.

Here are the things you need to do, and you can do them in parallel.

1. Take a language placement test. You should register for this test in advance, and you can do that on this page.  (If your abroad program did not include language study, skip this step.)
2. Submit the Credit Request Form on the Study Abroad website. This online form tells Study Abroad what approvals you plan to seek and how you would like to use your abroad credit. It will route electronically to appropriate departmental advisors who can approve your abroad credit. Here is a list of those advisors in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies:

• Interdisciplinary Asian Studies: Dr. Dwayne Dixon at AsiaStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Arabic: Dr. Ana Vinea and Ms. Doria El Kerdany at ArabicStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Chinese: Dr. Gang Yue and Ms. Yi Zhou at ChineseStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Hebrew: Dr. Yaron Shemer at HebrewStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Hindi-Urdu/South Asian Studies major: Dr. Pamela Lothspeich at SouthAsiaStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Japanese: Dr. Dwayne Dixon and Ms. Yuki Aratake at JapaneseStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Korean: Dr. I Jonathan Kief at KoreanStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Persian: Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi at PersianStudyAbroadApproval@unc.edu
• Turkish: Dr. Didem Havlioglu at didemh@email.unc.edu

Here’s what will happen once you have done all these things. The Asian and Middle Eastern Studies professor you sent your course approval form to will approve it and send it on to Study Abroad, or if there is any question or problem about it, we’ll contact you.

Study Abroad will hold your file until they have received your Credit Request Forms, all the necessary departmental approvals, and your foreign transcript.  Once they have assembled all these parts, they will process your credit and send it in to the Registrar’s office for posting.

The Registrar’s office will make the changes to your Tar Heel Tracker, and then you’ll be able to see that the process is complete.

Questions?  Contact Lori Harris.

Note about UNC faculty-led, graded-credit programs (such as UNC Summer in India or UNC Summer in Japan): The above process doesn’t apply to these programs, because these courses are already regular UNC credit.  However, you might sometimes have an issue with how these courses are applying to your major or minor.  If it’s a major or minor in another department, contact that department.  If it’s a major or minor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, contact Lori Harris about it first.  She will either be able to resolve the issue for you with a Tracker adjustment, or will refer you to the correct Asian and Middle Eastern Studies professor whose approval you need.