UPDATED 9/14 at 1:30 PM
On Aug. 6, the Brandeis Study Abroad office cancelled their “Brandeis in the Hague” program, according to J. Scott Van Der Meid, the Associate Dean of Study Abroad. The cancellation will only affect students planning on attending the program in the spring of 2019. Participants for the summer session will still be allowed to attend as the program does not use U.S. Federal Financial Aid. This will be the 12th time the program has run.
The main issue regarding the suspension of the program during the spring semester was administrative errors with the U.S. Department of Education and Leiden University, the host university in The Hague, Denmark. Brandeis has been working with Leiden over the past year in hopes of resolving the financial aid issues involving U.S. Federal Financial Aid, but with no resolution in sight, Brandeis decided to close the program.
“We [the study abroad office] then followed up with each student individually that afternoon based on their personal academic interests with customized offers to help them think through various options for different program possibilities,” explained Van Der Meid in an email to The Brandeis Hoot.
The email sent out to students, explicitly listed 14 possible transfer options that students in the past had paired along with their semester in The Hague, according to Van Der Meid.
The Study Abroad Office made sure that the options were spelled out for the students and the best option was chosen for them as an alternative. “Regardless of their decision, we offered time and support to each of them to walk through the process that would be most helpful to them,” said Van Der Meid. “We met with each of the students either in person or over the phone to discuss the new academic options, what they needed to get credit for, any personal concerns or needs for their time away.”
Students who had already put down the $500 deposit were fully refunded by the university due to the cancellation of the program as well. Many programs also had later deadlines so students that were impacted by the cancellation were able to find, and apply, for other study abroad programs.
“I am happy to share that all of the Spring 2019 students have already been transferred to a new program and the majority of them have finished their application for their new program. Some have already been accepted to their new program and thus are ahead of some other students at Brandeis who are still in the application process,” said Van Der Meid.
CORRECTION:The article stated that the Brandeis in the Hague Program took place in Denmark. The program actually takes places in the Netherlands
