For two years, the Study Abroad program has offered students some alternatives to their traditional international operations. In an international study abroad program that has spanned over the last 25 years, more options are now available. “We opened up what we call direct-enrollment university programs,” said Nikki Christensen, Director of Study Abroad. “Gloria Vicary formed her own company called IRSS.”

IRSS stands for Intercontinental Recruitment and Support Services, and it represents eight universities and colleges in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and a school for the arts in Singapore.

“It takes a different type of student to go into a direct-enrollment; you’ve got to be pretty sophisticated, have a good GPA, and strong recommendations,” said Christensen. “They’re actually directly enrolled into the university.”

Christensen said the program limits enrollment to strong and responsible students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, in the second-semester of their sophomore year or beyond. They must undergo an application process with both the Study Abroad program and with the IRSS.

So far only a few students have taken advantage of these opportunities.

“We’ve had students go to the University of Limerick, we have someone going to The University of Dundee in Scotland, and we have sent a couple of science majors to The University of York,” Christensen said.

This semester, sophomore Garrett Fitzgerald is directly enrolled at The University of Kent in Canterbury, England.

“It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to meet and befriend people from all over the world and really begin to understand what we all share in common,” Fitzgerald said. “I have been very conscious of trying to make a good impression here. While most people aren’t hostile to Americans, there are some general ideas and attitudes they have about how we operate. It’s both unfortunate and rewarding to have someone tell you ‘wow, you’re not how I pictured Americans at all!'”

Christensen said that Fitzgerald’s positive attitude has rubbed off on the locals in Canterbury. “They absolutely love him. We’ve already heard from Kent, they just think he’s wonderful. He’s the best ambassador for Guilford we could have.”

Fitzgerald addressed some concerns students may have about the direct-enrollment program, including financial and academic questions.

“The program itself was actually a bit cheaper than a semester at Guilford, but with the exchange rate being what it is, the cost of living is about twice as much,” Fitzgerald said. “The academics here are a different kind of challenge. Whereas American professors give you specific outlines on what to read and when, here they just hand out reading lists and you’re forced to pick and choose what you think will work best. Overall, I think it’s less actual work, but the work that is done requires a bit more effort.”

The academic differences between the Guilford Study Abroad program and the direct enrollment program through IRSS appeal to some students.

“I like the idea of actually enrolling in an international university instead of going through Guilford,” said junior Sonja Dalrymple, who has been interested in studying abroad since she was a first-year. “It seems like you’d have more choices and opportunities if you were an actual student at a European university, rather than a Guilford student studying in Europe, taking only the classes Guilford makes you take.”

Fitzgerald strongly urges students to consider the direct-enrollment program for benefits other than academics: “I’d say that the life experiences I have this semester will probably outshine the academics pretty easily. I think a night of [hanging out] with folks from Japan, Austria, Spain, Scotland and all over England taught me more valuable lessons about the way the world and the people in it work than I could have learned from months in an academic setting.