60 JUNE 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 1. “I want to explore several subjects before I choose a major.” This student might want to study at an American-style university abroad. Schools like the American University of Paris (AUP) or John Cabot University in Rome are private universities purposefully created to provide postsecondary American education options outside the United States. They predominantly follow a liberal arts model, with the freedom to choose a major after enrollment, and require courses outside your field of study to ensure breadth and depth. The most common majors are international studies and international business, but you’ll find majors in psychology, media, arts, communications, finance, tourism, and more. These schools will have the familiar blend of the international and the American that FS students understand from their international school years. Some of these universities are quite small, with transient populations. Domestic U.S. students may spend a term at AUP to feel what it’s like to live in Paris before returning to their home school. The Irish American University (also known as the American College of Dublin) is one of the few universities in this category to offer a bachelor’s degree in performing arts—but it has an enrollment of fewer than 200 students, many of whom study there for one term only. In general, the tuition at Americanstyle universities abroad is higher than the average tuition in Europe, but some charge significantly less than U.S. tuition rates. At the Anglo-American University in Prague, for example, international student tuition is approximately $6,000 per year. There are also exploratory years built into degrees in Scotland and at the residential “University Colleges” at certain universities in the Netherlands. Students here start their studies primarily in one broad field, such as global and political studies or psychology, narrowing in on a more particular major, such as East Asian studies, in their second year. The small size of some of these programs will, as at small liberal arts colleges in the U.S., give students a closer (Continues on page 64)
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