UB Undergraduate Academies announce a Global Scholar Program with a related transcript notation

BUFFALO, N.Y. – In support of its UB 2020 commitment to prepare students to live and lead in a global world, the University at Buffalo has announced its Global Scholar Program, through which undergraduates in any discipline can qualify for a global scholar transcript notation (TN) citing significant achievement in global/international awareness. 

The Global Scholars TN, UB’s first new notation in several decades, will be entered on every official transcript produced for that student.

Offered through the UB Undergraduate Academies, the transcript notation requires completion of specific academic courses (which can include study abroad programs) as well as co-curricular activities with a global or cross-cultural focus.  

Donald McGuire, PhD, program director, Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education, says, “This transcript notation will demonstrate to employers and graduate schools that a student is seriously engaged with international and global concerns and issues and has the academic qualifications to support that claim.

“Today, a wide range of government and not-for-profit agencies, corporations, graduate schools and other educational institutions are in pursuit of graduates with an international perspective,” he says, “so this will increase demand for our students.”

An undergraduate can qualify for the program and its TN by completing a fixed number of academic credits and co-curricular pursuits.  The academic credits are drawn from a wide range of courses whose curricula address modern global issues, as well as participation in a formal study abroad experiences.

Completion of a credit-bearing, pre-approved internship with an international or cross-cultural focus and major and minor courses of study in a number of globally oriented disciplines also qualify students for the TN.  Students also must complete a combination of extra-curricular activities with a cross-cultural focus, such as service with a pre-approved community agency or active membership in a campus cross-cultural organization through participation in the group’s educational events.

McGuire says students who want to apply for the program should begin as soon as possible to plan their enrollment in courses that fulfill the academic requirements of their degree program and of the TN, for which they must apply by the time they have earned 90 academic credits.

He says, “We have left it to the departments to design or select the classes in their field that would qualify an undergraduate for the transcript notation, but there already are many such courses in place, including those in anthropology, history, political science, linguistics, Romance languages and other departments and programs.”

McGuire, an adjunct professor of classics at UB, says, “There are even four them in the Department of Classics that address such things as the end of Rome and the birth of Europe, and the classic origins of Western literature.”

Since academic credits toward the Global Scholar TN also can be earned through participation in any of a number of international travel/study programs offered by UB, McGuire points out that several of these will be offered in the winter session that runs Jan. 6-24.

They average three weeks of study and travel in one of several sites: Istanbul (co-led by McGuire), Rome and Naples, Tanzania, the Republic of Moldova, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.

These and other study abroad programs are described at www.buffalo.edu/studyabroad

A number of UB scholarships available to cover the cost of such programs are described at http://inted.oie.buffalo.edu/studyabroad/sascholarship.asp

The UB Undergraduate Academies offer several other specialized undergraduate programs: Civic Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Research Exploration and Sustainability, each with specific academic requirements related to the program’s theme. Only the Global Scholars Program, however, offers a transcript notation.

Other transcript notations offered by UB are the University Honors notation, the Department Honors notation and the Latin notations that designate graduating cum, magna cum or summa cum laude.