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Learning Abroad Center

Teach Abroad

Teach Abroad

Leading a group of students abroad is a professionally rewarding experience. Hundreds of University of Minnesota faculty and staff have taught undergraduate and graduate students in an international setting, with students and program leaders alike finding the experience to be a highlight of their academic and professional careers.

The Learning Abroad Center is here to help you develop one of these unique learning opportunities. 

Call for Proposals

The submission portal for LAC Seminar proposals for academic year 2026–2027 is now closed. The proposal submission deadline was February 1, 2026 for 2026–2027 programs. Explore the Learning Abroad Center's 2026–2027 LAC Seminar Suite for programs that have been selected and will run this Academic Year.

Review our Teach Abroad web pages, leader resources, and the Leader Portal Canvas site for additional information. 

The call for proposals for the 2027-2028 LAC Seminar suite will begin in November 2026. Program proposals for 2027-2028 will be due on February 1, 2027.

Proposal Considerations

The Learning Abroad Center is interested in receiving proposals that appeal to today's UMTC student population. Faculty and staff should consider how their proposed program can fulfill specific major or minor credits and liberal education requirements for students. Aligning your program with specific academic requirements for students helps to increase student interest and enrollment. We also strongly encourage faculty and staff to consider how their course may appeal to students across departments and colleges by working with the Instructor-led Program Team, and other colleagues around campus, to approve programs to count toward multiple major or minor requirements. 

We encourage faculty and staff to thoughtfully consider how your own experiences and positionality, both as an instructor and as an individual, contributes to your background teaching undergraduates and your ability to lead diverse student groups. We are particularly interested in learning how your program design promotes inclusivity and supports students from traditionally underrepresented populations.

We encourage you to connect with the Instructor-led Program Team to discuss your program ideas and how they may align with current proposal considerations.

Contact the LAC Instructor-led Program Team at [email protected] with questions about the Proposal & Review process. 

Instructor-Led Program Models

Learning Abroad Center Seminar Series

Global Seminar/Create Your Own Program Models

  • These programs are designed for, and open to, students from a variety of academic backgrounds.
  • They have the highest level of Learning Abroad Center support with regard to program development, administration, and implementation.
  • There is a community of leaders that can provide mentoring and feedback.
  • Global Seminars offer the option to teach your 3 credit, 3 week course entirely abroad.
  • The Create Your Own model offers the option to teach an embedded or entirely abroad course, and additional flexibility to customize your program length, number of credits, and academic focus. 

Location

Program locations for LAC Seminar models are finalized in consultation with the Learning Abroad Center. Factors taken into consideration are availability of partners that can provide strong on-site support, appeal to students, relevance to program topic, distance, safety, and cost. There are locations that today's students are more interested in than others. We encourage you to connect with the Instructor-led Program Team to discuss program locations.

Customized Programs

UofM Customized programs allow for developing deeper connections with existing Learning Abroad Center programs and take advantage of the on-site staff's knowledge and expertise. They offer a high level of support from the Learning Abroad Center regarding your program's development, administration, and implementation. UofM Customized programs grant you the ability to design a discipline-specific program for a particular population of students.

Global Campus Partner Programs

Global Campus Partner (GCP) programs allow for you to design a discipline-specific program for a particular population of students. They provide the ability to have specific academic prerequisites that students must meet. GCP programs are a good fit for a leader/home unit that has a very specific location and or pre-existing relationship with an onsite partner/onsite contacts they for sure want to work with. They work well for leaders/home units that prefer to assume full ownership of program development, finances, administration, and implementation.

Leader Portal

For more information about instructor-led programs, program development resources, and to connect with other leaders, refer to the Leader Portal Canvas site. If you need to enroll in the Canvas site, follow these steps:

  1. Visit the UofM Training Hub
  2. Select the "Course Catalog"button
  3. Keyword: LAC100 and/or Department offering training: Learning Abroad Center
  4. Select: Education Abroad Program Leader Resources
  5. Click green button: +Enroll in Course