East Tennessee State University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research is furthering global education and offering unique opportunities to motivated students through the TransAtlantic Business School Alliance.
The alliance is a consortium of European and United States universities which enables students to study at a partner university in Europe for two years and earn two degrees.
ETSU is in the final stages of having the curriculum for the program reviewed.
“We have been working for three years to develop a joint curriculum whereby students who study in Europe can transfer to the U.S. after two years and take two years of courses here, graduating with an ETSU degree and a degree from their home institution,” said Dr. Jon Smith, the interim director of the bureau.
Each student who participates in the program will be required to have an internship in the United States and in Europe.
“This is going to build a strong opportunity for our students because they not only master a foreign language, but will have also earned a European degree,” Smith said.
Students in the program have to pay their ETSU tuition, travel and living expenses.
“One of the positive things about it is that if you are in this program, you pay your ETSU tuition for four years and no more – there is no extra tuition charged,” Smith said.
“Students do pay their travel and living expenses, but you pay your living expenses here, so it’s cost effective,” he said. “It produces a good education and it gives you a leg up in the job market.”
Smith said that once the program has received final approval from their accrediting agencies, they hope to be able to take this model and move it to other regional campuses throughout the United States.
In 1997, ETSU representatives were invited to attend a meeting in Germany along with four European universities which already had an exchange program in place.
The European program, Two Plus Two, involved universities in Germany, England, Spain and France, and wanted to include the United States as well.
At that meeting, ETSU was selected to be the lead U.S. institution and author a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education. “At first, we were skeptical because of our accrediting body,” Smith said.
Funding was made possible through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), a grant opportunity offered by the U.S. Department of Education to fund international consortiums.
“We were very fortunate that year,” Smith said. “We were one of a dozen proposals to be funded by FIPSE.”
ETSU’s bureau is currently in the process of recruiting entering freshmen who have a strong language background, are motivated and have an interest in international business for the program.

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