Study Abroad Director Danielle McGhee said students will now be able to study at the University of Termo in Italy and University of Catholique de l'Ouest in France for a semester.

Other existing semester exchange programs include Qingdao University in China, University of Colima in Mexico, University of Leon in Spain, Mahidol International University in Thailand and Hague University in the Netherlands.

In semester exchange programs, students pay tuition to UCA for classes in the foreign countries, but pay room and board fees to the school they will attend.

McGhee said students can apply for scholarships to the exchange program they wish to enroll in.

Students wanting to study abroad must be at junior level classification or higher.

Besides semester exchange programs, the study abroad office provides a language immersion program, a five-week session during the summer where students take a trip to various countries to study different languages, including a trip to Castalia to study Spanish, Quebec in Canada to study French, Belgium to study French and Shanghai to study Chinese.

Students in those programs pay tuition to the schools they attend during the session and credits transfer to UCA.

McGhee said that students don't receive a grade on their transcript for the language immersion program, so if they get C or better then it doesn't affect their GPA.

Students can choose to live with host families or on campus, depending on the school.

The program also offers a faculty-led program, which lasts two to five weeks during the summer, where faculty members take students abroad to study different course material other than foreign languages.

The programs include theater in London, biology in the Netherlands, art history and drawing in Rome and Venice, interior design or international business in Florence, Italy, writing in Canada and liberal arts in Paris.

Most programs are worth six credit hours.

McGhee said most programs cost $4,500 to $5,500, which includes airfare, tuition and insurance.

Sophomore Jordan Karpe studied Chinese in Shanghai last summer with the language immersion program.

"This past summer's study abroad experience was life changing in several ways that exceeded merely academics," Karpe said. "My Chinese increased dramatically in terms of listening comprehension, articulation and writing characters."

Karpe said the trip was excellent because he did not only learn the Chinese language, but also made many new friends among both the program and in Shanghai and learned the culture.

"My perspective has changed due to the culture shock between China and the U.S.," he said.

Karpe said he wishes the program in Shanghai was longer than a month, and wishes the program was also scheduled to go to Beijing during the stay in Shanghai.

"A month was simply a taste of China, and right as we were settling in, we had to leave," Karpe said.

McGhee said six students have already applied for study abroad programs in the spring.

This semester, Paris, the Netherlands and Italy were the most popular places to study among students who joined study abroad programs.

"Our goal is to have enough students to run the programs," McGhee said. "We at least need 10 to 12 students for one program."

McGhee said there are 18 exchange students studying at UCA from partner schools abroad.

"We want to make sure the schools give us students to UCA to keep balance of money between UCA and those partner schools," McGhee said.

The deadline to apply for one of the faculty-led programs is Dec. 1 and is between December and February for the language immersion programs. Students interested in studying abroad for a semester may contact Danielle McGhee a semester before they want to study abroad.