Options for Study
Housing and Meals
Academic Calendar
Costs
Credit Load
Libraries and Computers
Excursions
Options for Study
The Avignon semester and academic year program, invites students to discover the richness and diversity of Avignon, Provence, France, France in Europe and beyond. Students select courses in archeology, art history, civilization, history, linguistics, literature, political science, philosophy, and visual arts. An internship in a local organization is a highly recommended part of the experience.
Fall or Spring semester students also have the option of enrolling in a course at l'Université d'Avignon, the local French University. For more information on this option, please visit our French courses for credit page.
Students may also study abroad for a six-week summer term in Avignon. Like the semester study abroad program, students choose courses that best fit their academic and personal interests. The normal academic summer schedule is two three-credit courses for the intensive six week term.
View the courses available for all terms on the programs page.
Housing and Meals
Students are generally individually housed in the homes of French hosts, though independent living arrangements can be made when necessary. Living in a French home is considered the best form of housing because it provides an immediate introduction to life in this new place. Hosts come from a cross-section of society; they belong to no particular professional or social milieu, but all are carefully chosen, inspected, and monitored, and many have hosted American students for several years. Students find that speaking French at home, along with their participation in local activities and events, as the largest factors in increasing their facility with the language.
Living in a French home is seen universally as an invaluable opportunity not found in many study abroad programs. Naturally, all students must accept the constraints and responsibilities that such arrangements entail. Whenever possible, IAU accommodates students' stated housing preferences.
Daily continental breakfasts and six evening meals per week are taken in the student's French home. Students are responsible for lunches. There is a multitude of affordable cafés, brasseries, boulangeries, small sandwich and grocery shops from which to choose. The Center also has in-house commodities available to students such as a refrigerator, cutlery, and china. Avignon opens its plentiful indoor central market, Les Halles, every morning. Many other food markets are available around town during the week. students can also bring in their own staple to create their own wonderful salads in the kitchen facilities available to them.
Le Centre d'Avignon, aware that local public transportation stops too early in the evening for students to enjoy a late movie, has made available a co-allocation taxi to students who live outside a perimeter roughly defined by the ancient city walls. Those students also receive a monthly bus pass enabling them to travel freely on the bus network.
| Le Centre d'Avignon Academic Calendar | | | Fall and Spring 2008-2009 | | | Summer 2009 Session I - Intensive 4-week Language Program offering level 100 to 300 French courses. (One phonetics course is typically offered at the 300 level). See program info here. Session II - For students at 300 level French or higher or those who successfully completed Session I at the 200 level. | | | Fall and Spring 2009-2010 | | | Academic Calendar updated 07/24/08
Dates are subject to change
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| Le Centre d'Avignon Costs | Program fees include tuition, housing, two meals per day (with the exception of one evening meal per week), orientation, all textbooks, health and repatriation insurance, excursions, bus passes, and co-allocation taxi (whenever applicable) and scheduled cultural activities.
Additional student costs include round trip airfare, lunches, and personal expenses. For students who wish to enroll in a course for credit at l'Université d'Avignon et des Pays du Vaucluse, the student is responsible for half of the cost of tuition ($194 in 2008-2009) and IAU covers the other half. Fees for the 2009-2010 academic year have not yet been determined.
| Summer 2008 Six-week Term | $5,335 | Fall Semester 2008 | $14,735 | Spring Semester 2009 | $15,050 | Summer 2009 Intensive 4-Week French Language Program | *(Please refer to prgram info here) | | Summer 2009 Six-week Term | $5,980 | Costs updated 6/11/08 and are subject to change. Please note that spring and summer 2009 costs were adjusted due to the dramatic weakening of the dollar. *Travel and all lunches are not included. There may be additional fees by the University of Illinois for the purposes of transcripts and non-UIUC student enrollment. | |
Credit Load
Students in the Avignon semester study abroad program take five three-credit courses. They choose courses from advanced grammar, French or francophone literature, linguistics, political science, art history, civilization, philosophy, visual arts, and cinema.
Before departure from the United States, students must arrange credit transfer with their Dean or Department Head who must sign the Institute for American Universities Academic Approvals form signifying that work completed at IAU will receive credit toward the applicant's degree.
Students who are unable to make such an arrangement may apply to IAU through one of the schools listed below. However, doing so does not guarantee that the credit will transfer/be accepted by a school other than the student's home institution (for example, if the student were to later transfer to a different US college/university). IAU cannot be held responsible in such cases.
IAU recommends transfer credit with appropriate grades on the basis of three units per semester course (45 class hours or equivalent).
The Institute for American Universities issues an official, traditional American transcript with letter grades. Institute courses have been accepted for academic credit by over 700 North American institutions of higher learning since its founding in 1957.
Libraries and Computers
Avignon offers a spacious, open-access library complete with computers on its mezzanine level. The computers are equipped with high speed internet, and the entire building is wireless internet accessible, including a wireless printer.
Avignon students have borrowing privileges at the Avignon public library, and they have access to the library at the Université d'Avignon. Avignon students are encouraged to also visit the Jean Vilar library, specializing in theater.
Students with personal laptops can enjoy wireless internet in and around the Center, and can also use cybercafés in town.
Excursions
Day excursions are part of the IAU Avignon experience. Previous excursions have included trips to Marseille, Les Baux de Provence and Arles, among others. Selected courses also take day trips to areas in the region. All of these excursions are included in the general costs of the program.
Spring 2009 Excursions
Summer 2009 Excursions
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