Duke University - Economics

Study Away From Duke

Duke's Global Education Office for Undergraduates is the initial point of contact for all students wishing to take courses abroad, either through a "Duke in" Program or at any other institution not in the United States.

In all cases, a student wishing to undertake study abroad should start by  contacting the Global Education Office for Undergraduates.

The Global Education Office maintains a database of previously approved courses and their transfer equivalents at Duke. If your course has been previously approved, the Global Education Office will be able to process the transfer credit. For information specific to programs with courses in Economics see Duke Study Abroad: Economics.

If your course has not been previously approved, you must obtain approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Students should initiate the process with the Global Education Office by completing an "Approval of Study Abroad Transfer Credit Courses" form. In addition to the form, students will need to provide a description of the course(s) in question, such as a description from a course catalog, web print-out or course syllabus. Students also need to provide information on where the course(s) fits into the program of study at the institution in question (i.e. is it a course for majors?; is it an intro, intermediate or advanced course?; etc.). A good way to do this is to provide course descriptions for any pre-requisites to the course you are seeking to transfer.

Students may submit these materials with the approval form directly to the EcoTeach Center who will forward them to the Director of Undergraduate Studies for approval and then to the Global Education Office for final processing.

Departmental Transfer Credit Guidelines

When transferring credit through the Economics Department, the following guidelines apply:

• A maximum of two (2) course credits from all study abroad courses and/or courses taken at other domestic institutions may be counted toward economics major or minor requirements. One exception is for courses taken through the full-year program at the London School of Economics (in which case the maximum number of transfer credits is four (4));
• Any approved Principles of Macroeconomics & Microeconomics course will transfer in as Econ 51/101;
• In most cases, an approved Intermediate Microeconomics course will transfer as Econ 55D/201D, however there is a slim possibility that a student could earn Economics credit for Econ 105D/205D if the course has sufficient mathematical rigor and the content/coverage is consisted with that of Econ 105D/205D;
• Generally, courses with sufficient economics content but no economics prerequisites will be granted Econ 888/200 credit or their exact Duke equivalent (which will be below the 100-level). Econ 888/200 courses may not be used toward any requirements of the economics major or minor, though they may be used toward general university requirements;
• Generally, courses with sufficient economics content and prerequisites of at least the Principles level will be granted Econ 999 credit or their exact Duke equivalent (which will be at the 100+ level). All such courses will count as credit toward major requirements (assuming the student has no more than two) as well as toward university requirements.