We operate some of the most innovative, engaging and enriching study abroad programs in the world. We work extremely hard to ensure that our students have the opportunity to have a world-class experience during their semester or summer abroad.

Local Expertise

We are local experts in the countries in which we operate and feel it is part of our responsibility to students to help them experience the deepest range of activities possible during their time abroad, while remaining in a meaningful academic context. We literally spend thousands of hours integrating our curricula and syllabi - down to the lesson plan level - with extensive co-curricular educational travel and cultural experiences. We work with the host academic institution to select the knowledgeable and engaging faculty and outside the institution to set up special co-curricular travel and activities for students on our programs. Finally, we ensure that our programs execute with high operational quality in matters of safety and comfort.

The net result of this work is that we operate fewer programs than other providers but that our programs are very high-energy and exciting and can be exceptionally rewarding for the mature and inquisitive student.

Global Semesters has a dedicated team focused on education abroad, with its central offices located in Nicosia and in New York City. 

Academic Heritage

Our organizational heritage is in academia. We were spun out from the University of Nicosia, the leading university in Cyprus, with the goal of developing world-class, innovative study abroad programs for North American students. The goal was to take our decades of experience with local and international students and combine it with international content knowledge in order to build programs that take students beyond the classroom and that are truly transformative.

Best Practices

We are committed to operating our programs at the forefront of best practices and standards in the field of education abroad. As active members of the Forum on Education Abroad, we believe that the quality and accountability of study abroad programs should be no less than that of any U.S. accredited institution. We strive to make sure that the standards of our programs is transparent to students, parents, and home institutions.

We only partner with fully accredited and respected local colleges and universities to deliver U.S.-quality academics for our programs. The courses on our programs are taught by faculty from our host institutions, on the host institution campus, using the same syllabi and teaching modalities typically used by that institution. Our students are issued official student transcripts directly from the host institution.

We emphasize academics because we believe academics are critical in providing the foundation and framework for understanding the experiential and travel components of our study abroad programs. We also design our programs to be compatible with academic credit requirements in the United States and will spend the time needed with our applicants to ensure that they can receive home institution academic credit for our programs.