Thayer School of Engineering and Technical University of Denmark are finalizing a proposal to create an exchange program between the two schools, Thayer assistant dean of academic and student affairs Holly Wilkinson said.

For the program to be finalized, it still needs final approval from Thayer faculty and to undergo a series of several arts and sciences faculty committees, Wilkinson said.

Pending the approval, the program will be advertised to undergraduate students this fall, open for applications next winter for trips in the fall of 2016, Thayer Dean and engineering professor Joseph Helble said.

Wilkinson, Thayer faculty members and executive director of off-campus programs John Tansey are, in conjunction with partners at DTU, drafting a memorandum of understanding, the first step in the formation of a formal contract between the two institutions...

... Once approved, both schools will review the program every three years, Wilkinson said. Both schools will attempt to maintain an equal number of students participating in the exchange, he added.

Wilkinson said that students who participate in the program will both gain a cultural experience and have the opportunity to accelerate their degree completion by earning four credits for the term as opposed to three at Dartmouth.

Helble added that the experience will also expose students to how engineering is taught and practiced in other countries while pushing them out of their comfort zones, which he said will be a boon to both their educational experience and careers in engineering.

Helble said that the program will further contribute to Thayer’s mission of teaching engineering in a liberal arts setting.

“We are not an engineering program that believes, like many others do, that an engineering education at the undergraduate level should be about cramming as much technical content as possible into four short years,” Helble said.

Helble said that the faculty has been supportive of developing exchange programs within Thayer’s curriculum, while also being supportive of student groups, such as Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering, and other study abroad programs that provide a means of obtaining engineering experience outside of Thayer.