Academic Exchange Program

EU/US Curriculum on Renewable Resources and Clean Technology

This program, a jointly-sponsored European Union and United States (Department of Education) program, exists to provide seniors and graduate students with an opportunity to study abroad for up to five months. While students are abroad, they will be working on a research project and taking courses. Three students from University of Arkansas will be chosen to participate in this program each year for three years.

Students can either follow courses, conduct a project at the university or in industry or a combination of both. Student selection will be by the home university based on the academic skills and language proficiency. The selection of the host institution will be based primarily on completion of a common curriculum as proposed by this project. A personal tutor will be assigned at host and home institutions. The tutor will be responsible for the academic program, administration (inscription, language training, culture, sport, etc.). Both European and the United States partners have an international office both at the University level and faculty/department level which are experienced in European educational programs.

The study period will be at least a full academic term (semester, trimester). The average length of stay will be 5 months for each student. Nine students from each partner institution will have the opportunity to participate in the scheme. In addition, equivalency of mobility between the partners is proposed. Those participating must be full time students who are paying tuition only at the home university. No extra costs will be charged for tuition, laboratory or library use at the host institution. Equivalency of mobility between the partners is one of the conditions in order to waive tuition. A learning agreement will be finalized before the departure and all partners agreed to guarantee academic recognition of the credits and marks obtained at the host institution and they will be included in final graduation. The learning agreement will be signed by the academic partner responsible at the home institution and by the student.

The quality of these placements will be ensured by a tutor form the host university and a tutor at the placement center. The work placements cannot be shorter than three months. In addition the US students can participate in the Intensive Program organized within the Socrates Project. This participation would enable students to gain a genuine European and American experience and contact with different educational systems and cultures. These intensive programs will be an integral part of the study program.

Program requirements for U of A students:
• United States citizenship
• Language skills are helpful but not required

Proposed areas of study:
•Renewable resources (agricultural products for non-food uses)
• Biochemistry of lipids, carbohydrates, and protein; oils from oil seeds and cereals
• Biodiesel production and utilization
• Silvachemicals (chemicals from wood)
• Life cycle analysis of bioresources
• Green refinery
• Green technology - super critical extraction, fermentation and spectroscopy
• Sensory, texture and rheology analysis
• Conversion of wood, cellulose, lipids and proteins to high value products
• Plant antioxidant extraction and evaluation

University of Arkansas Contact:
Dr. Andrew Proctor
(email) aproctor@uark.edu
(phone) 479-575-2980
(fax) 479-575-6936