The Bing Overseas Studies Program will broaden its horizons in January 2015 with the debut of Destination Istanbul, the University's first study-abroad option in a predominantly Muslim country.
In partnership with Koç University, a private nonprofit college in Turkey's cultural capital, the program will provide classrooms, housing, field trips and cultural programs during the 10-week stay—a departure from Stanford's normal model of renting its own site. Koç's president, Umran Inan, PhD '77, is a Stanford professor emeritus of electrical engineering.
With the addition of Turkey, Stanford will offer study-abroad programs in a dozen locations from Santiago, Chile, to Beijing. Nearly half of undergraduates study overseas by graduation. Stanford's first such program started in Germany in 1958.
