SFU and Monash University in Melbourne are teaming up in ’09 to offer a double undergrad program that trades on Whistler’s attraction for students down under. SFU’s proximity to the ski resort has made it one of Canada’s top-drawing universities in Australia. The new partnership between SFU’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) and Monash’s Faculty of Arts promises to boost SFU’s appeal even further. Graduates will complete two degrees concurrently in Canada and Australia:

• A BA in global studies from Monash similar to one offered by SFU’s School of International Studies
• An SFU degree with a major in criminology, geography, international studies or world literature, leading to a BA, or a minor in First Nations studies leading to a BGS.

Monash is Australia’s largest university and one of its leading research universities with about 55,000 students. Students in the double degree program will be able to study at any of Monash’s six national campuses, overseas in Malaysia and South Africa and a centre in Prato, Italy. "B.C. and Australian students are interested in exploring each other’s landscape and culture," says FASS dean Lesley Cormack. "This program will let them combine a degree with working and vacationing abroad."

Students starting at SFU will complete the program in five years—two at SFU, two at Monash and a final year at SFU. Students starting at Monash, where an undergraduate degree normally takes three years, will finish in four years—two in each country.

Explains Cormack, "all students, whether they are starting at Monash or SFU, will complete two degrees in one year more than it would take them to complete a single degree at their home country’s institution."

www.sfu.ca/arts/undergraduate/monash