Beginning this fall, the College plans to offer a new exchange program with Oxford University's Keble College which will allow College students to study economics and government for course credits in their major.
Rockefeller Center Director Linda Fowler said the program will accept only four students each Fall, Winter and Spring term. In return, Oxford students will come to the College beginning in the summer of 1998.
Joanna Wolff, administrative assistant to the Rockefeller Center, said "pre-approved courses to satisfy major credits" will be offered in economics, government and public policy.
Fowler said the program, which is still under administrative review, must be formally approved by one more committee before it is officially offered to students.
Students interested in going to Keble College must fill out the standard Foreign Study Program form and essay, Fowler said.
Economics and government majors, as well as students pursuing the College minor in public policy, will be given preference in the application process, but other students can apply, according to Wolff.
"There was less competition for next year because there wasn't much advertising," said Fowler. "People applied before the program was accepted."
Unlike FSPs, students will not be accompanied by College professors and will not be paying for tuition through the College, Fowler said.
Tim Jenkinson, professor of economics at Oxford, said it has not yet been determined whether grades earned during the exchange term will be displayed on College transcripts.
Jenkinson said the Dartmouth exchange students would be "fully matriculated members of the University," and would have more privileges than students in other foreign study programs.
"They can go to any lectures they want, go into any library and play the university sports," he said.
Students participating in the program can also expect a different learning experience, Jenkinson said.
College students will take two courses and will not have exams until the end of the term. Instead, they will write weekly papers and meet with professors to discuss their work in small groups for "tutorials," Jenkinson said.
Microeconomics students would also have math problems to discuss, he said.
This opportunity to discuss and criticize each other's work is the "single biggest difference" between the typical Dartmouth and Oxford government and economics classes, Jenkinson said.
"You'll have your work dissected, grilled, turned on its head," Jenkinson said. "People can find it very daunting."
However, many of the economics majors accepted for the program said they were more excited than daunted by the prospect of the tutorials.
"You'll get to develop your writing skills," said Lee Brosnick '99, who has been accepted for next spring's program. "Dartmouth is not as writing intensive."
Economics major David Wilansky '99, who was accepted for next fall's program, said he is looking forward to the challenge of Oxford's tutorial system.
Wilansky said he heard about the program from his economics professors and applied because he wanted to spend a term abroad and wanted to explore "more independently motivated learning."
Anne Kanyusik '98 said she heard about the program through the Rockefeller Center and plans to take government classes at Keble College next winter.
Kanyusik said she wants to "try and get a perspective on government from another country's point of view," and looks forward to the Oxford curriculum because she would like to "try a system a little bit different from the one here."
Jenkinson said Dartmouth students would also be contacted by an Oxford student before arriving and will be "taken under their wing" to ease the transition into the University's social life.
"There is a lot to do within Oxford," Jenkinson said, adding that Oxford students frequent London's many theatres, cinemas and nightclubs.
Planning for the program began in the spring of 1995, when Jenkinson was a visiting professor at the College. He had taught economics classes at the College in 1992 as well and had "noticed that a lot of the courses we taught were virtually the same in terms of subject matter."
Jenkinson said the two institutions seemed to be a "brilliant fit because we have the same terms of nine or 10 weeks."
He said Dartmouth and Keble College are also alike with "very technologically advanced" computer systems.
Fowler said she was approached by an economist on the College faculty last fall about the program, which will be the first opportunity for economics students to go abroad and get credit for major courses.
Fowler said she has also been approached by history students who want to see the program implemented in their department.
Expanding the program to other departments "hasn't been seriously discussed yet," Fowler said.
"We'd like to keep [the program] within the margins we have right now," Jenkinson said, since a large number of exchange students would be difficult to integrate into Oxford University at once.
