Intensive French Language sponsored by LAS and the Department of French and Italian.

Arles à la carte (ACE) provides students with a unique intensive language learning experience within the historic center of Arles, in the south of France. Courses include a significant field study component allowing students to visit the local Roman monuments, enjoy Provençal cuisine during the regular language lunches with staff and professors, learn about Van Gogh and other 20th-century painters’ time in Arles, and appreciate the importance of the surrounding Camargue region for local agriculture and economy.

Students live with host families, giving them the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in both the French language and culture. Program excursions to nearby towns, villages, and historical sites are also included, in order to introduce students to the region.

The Department of the Classics oversees a semester-long residential program in Athens, Greece. You can spend the Fall, Spring, or the entire academic year in one of the most exciting cities in Europe while earning credit toward your UIUC degree. Students from all UIUC colleges and majors are welcome. The program centers on a humanities and social sciences curriculum and offers a limited number of for-credit internship opportunities. Click here or write to professor Daniel Leon dleon@illinois.edu for more details. You can view a recorded information session here.

Short-term programs are offered through the department on an occasional basis. Previous destinations include Athens, Greece and Paphos, Cyprus. Stay tuned for more information.

Spend a year in Barcelona, Spain's second most prominent city, situated on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and a few hours from the Pyrenees Mountains.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese invite you to participate in the LAS-SPANPORT Year in Barcelona program. You will spend a year in Barcelona, Spain’s second most prominent city, situated on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and a few hours from the Pyrenees Mountains. This intensive language program, founded in 1971, is directed in Barcelona by either a professor from the University of Illinois or from the University of California.

Participants study from mid-August to mid-June at the Universidad Central, an elegant downtown campus of the University of Barcelona at the center of the city’s cultural and civic life. The instruction schedule allows for considerable personal time to become involved in local culture or to travel: vacations include two to three weeks in December, one in February, and two at Easter. Barcelona is conveniently situated to travel to all parts of Spain, Northern Africa, and other European countries.

As the LAS-SPANPORT Year in Barcelona program is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, it has the benefit of providing the following:

1. The completion of the Spanish major in the year abroad.
2. Open to students from all Illinois colleges and majors. You do not have to be an LAS student to apply! Because you can take courses at a local university, the program appeals to many majors in addition to Spanish majors (Anthropology, Economics, Latin American Studies, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, etc.) You want to be sure to consult your major advisor and browse through the titles of courses offered at the local universities to ensure that appropriate courses would be available to you.

More information on the Barcelona program

The Year in Japan program offers advanced undergraduates the opportunity to spend an academic year developing Japanese language skills and expanding their knowledge of Japan through a variety of courses.

The Year in Japan Program was established in 1976 on the campus of Konan University and since 2009 it has served nearly 250 students from a number of different American universities. The program is administrated by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a consortium of American universities that includes the University of Arizona, the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and the University of Pittsburgh.

The program offers advanced undergraduates the opportunity to spend an academic year developing Japanese language skills and expanding their knowledge of Japan through a variety of courses. Classroom learning is enhanced through living with host families. The program has an on-site Resident Director who teaches one course each semester as well as overseeing academic, student, and administrative matters for the consortium. The Resident Director is a faculty member from one of the American consortium universities.

The program is housed in the Konan International Exchange Center (KIEC) of Konan University, a liberal arts university of 10,000 students in a suburban district of Kobe. Kobe is located in the Kansai area, the middle part of Japan, which includes Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. An international port city, Kobe is the sixth-largest city in Japan, with a population of 1.5 million.

The campus of Konan University is 20 minutes from downtown Kobe, 40 minutes from downtown Osaka, and less than an hour and a half from Kyoto. Combining the new and the old, this area of Japan provides a stimulating backdrop for the study of Japan.

More information on the Kobe program

The Illinois Program in Paris offers a full academic year or one semester of study in French language, literature, and civilization. 

From Notre Dame to the Louvre, from Napoléon’s tomb to the Eiffel tower, from the Musée du Monde Arabe to the new Bibliothèque Mitterand, Paris is renowned for its arts, history, and vital cultural traditions. Lively neighborhoods, outdoor markets, shops, cafés, concerts, clubs, and countless cultural events make this one of the world's great cosmopolitan cities.

Make the most of your college career and give your résumé an edge by getting an international education. Through the Illinois Program in Paris, you can learn about another culture firsthand, interact with French people and institutions, study various aspects of French civilization, and make lifelong friends.

The Illinois Program is Paris offers you a full academic year or one semester of study in French language, literature, and civilization. Established in 1971 and sponsored and supervised by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the program is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors of any major at an accredited university. To ensure quality, the program and its participants are overseen by a director, employed by the University of Illinois, who is permanently based in Paris.

Enrollment in the more immersive nine-month program (September-June) is encouraged; however, you may select the one-semester option in the spring.

More information on the French program

Gain in-depth ecxperience in Italian language and culture and its European ties. Pavia's historical status and geographical position place it at the crossroads of Mediterranean culture and its continental counterparts.

The University of Illinois, the University of Pavia and the Alma Mater Ticinensis Foundation invite you to participate is the “Pavia, Italy, Europe: a Grand Tour Amidst Culture and Beauty”.  This semester abroad program offers a unique opportunity to gain in-depth experience in Italian language and culture and its European ties. Pavia’s historical status and geographical position place it at the crossroads of Mediterranean culture and its continental counterparts.

The program provides students with the skills necessary not only to comprehend the heritage of this vibrant area, but also make it an intrinsic part of their future and professional lives.

More information on the Italian program

Students spend a year in Vienna, the historical capital of the multinational Habsburg Empire, a melting pot of languages and cultures, and the crossroads between the East and West.

The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures of the University of Illinois invites you to participate in the Austria-Illinois Exchange Program by spending a year or a semester in Vienna. And, Salzburg, Prague, Budapest, and Munich are only a few hours away, while a day's train ride takes you to Venice or Paris—via the Orient Express.

Participation in the program gives you the opportunity to:

• Develop German language fluency and an understanding of European culture and society while maintaining residency as a University of Illinois student. Students from other colleges and universities are encouraged to apply. Those accepted are admitted to the U of I for the Program only.
• Experience a year (or a semester) abroad with classmates from the University of Illinois and well-qualified students from other universities and colleges.
• Receive University of Illinois credit for study abroad. This credit is transferable to other colleges and universities.
• Continue receiving most of your University of Illinois and other forms of financial aid while in Vienna. Pell Grants, ISSC, and student and parent loans apply to this program. Contact the  Office of Student Financial Aid for specific questions about the financial aid you may have.
• Learn and improve your German as you rub elbows with the Viennese in old-world cafes, chat with Austrians in the market place, attend theatrical and musical performances, visit the city’s many museums, hike in the Vienna woods, or ski in the Austrian Alps.

More information on the Vienna program (PDF)