Study Overseas

Alaska's the kind of place where you can pursue your dreams as well as your degrees, a place of incredible beauty and startling contrasts, a place where the people are friendly and always glad you came. That's why it's the favorite destination of millions of visitors from all over the world, and even for those who aren't able to visit, it remains forever on their list of places 'we've always wanted to go'.

Alaska doesn't have to be just one more item on your wish list; it's a fine place to come for your higher education experience. You could come to Alaska because of the university's world-class reputation for academic excellence, for its Arctic research opportunities, for its Circumpolar health programs, for its fisheries capabilities, for its information technology, or for its teacher education programs.

But other universities elsewhere could also brag about their programs. Sure, they offer good programs too. But they don't offer them in a place where you can see North America's highest mountain (and climb it if you're of the mind), or where you can spend your morning fly fishing or, if the season's right, ski to your class. In the evening, you could be developing computer models on the latest model Cray supercomputer.

Other universities also offer classes in wildlife management, but not where you're likely to see moose or black bears strolling around on campus! Or courses in anthropology, but in Alaska you can study with North American and Russian Native peoples, and experience their cultures first hand.
The University of Alaska, the state's only public institution of higher learning, is under the leadership of a new president, Mark R. Hamilton. One of his first acts was to announce the UA Scholars Program, which this year for the first time will offer four-year scholarship awards to the top ten per cent of Alaska's high school graduating classes, a program which is attracting national attention.

There are three regional university centers in the system - the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). In addition to the largest campus in Anchorage, the campuses on Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska-Susitna College in Palmer, and Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez are integral parts of UAA, which has exchange and cooperative agreements with Japan, Korea, Finland, Canada, China and Russia.

UAF is a land-, sea- and space-grant institution in the state's Interior, Western and Aleutian Islands region. The main campus is located in Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest city. UAF oversees the Bristol Bay campus in Dillingham, the Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue, the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel and the Northwest Campus in Nome. The Tanana Valley Campus is located in Fairbanks, as is the Interior-Aleutians Campus which administers learning centers and distance delivery education to more than 100 communities throughout the state. UAF has exchange and cooperative agreements with Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Norway, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and Sweden.

The Fairbanks campus of UAF is a major attraction for cultural and intellectual activities for Interior Alaska, and includes the University of Alaska Museum which contains 1.4 million artifacts. UAF is home to the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, where high performance computational research is conducted, and to the new International Arctic Research Center, the system's only doctoral degree-granting institution.

UAS is located in southeast Alaska, with the largest campus located in Juneau, with branch campuses in Ketchikan and Sitka, and outreach locations throughout the region. UAS has cooperative agreements with the Yukon Territory, and provides distance delivery programs to specific UA rural campuses. As the Juneau campus has many international students, one of the most active clubs on the Juneau campus is Global Connections, which meets weekly for dinners and programs about other countries.

On all three major regional campuses, there are international students and plenty of social activities related to clubs, outdoor recreation and fitness programs. There are plenty of chances to exercise English language skills, too, because Alaska doesn't have large ethnic groups on or off campus that would enable students to continue speaking their native language most of the time.

Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, is also home to Alaska Pacific University, a private institution located near the main campus of UAA, and in Sitka where UAS has a branch campus, there is also Sheldon Jackson College, the oldest educational institution in the state. It was started in 1873 by Sheldon Jackson, an energetic Presbyterian missionary, and is now a four-year institution.

For all higher education students, Alaska offers adventures in education, and an education in adventure. Come see what all the excitement is about! For more information about educational opportunities in Alaska, you may want to visit these Websites:
University of Alaska:
http://www.alaska.edu
Alaska Pacific University:
http://www.alaskapacific.edu
Sheldon Jackson College:
http://sheldonjackson.edu

Author
Bob Miller
University of Alaska