Smith Welcomes Spring 2023 Exchange Students

This spring, the Center for Global Business welcomed 35 incoming exchange students to the Robert H. Smith School of Business, while 24 Smith undergraduate students have been settling into business schools abroad. The Center for Global Business has over 20 exchange programs with business schools worldwide.

The pool of incoming exchange students come from premier universities recognized as world leaders in higher education, with internationally recognized curriculum. Through the exchange program, students have the unique opportunity of furthering their education while immersing themselves in new environments, cultures, and perspectives. The program allows students to receive academic credit toward their degrees abroad and in doing so, exchange participants are not only building up their careers, but enriching their global approaches to business as well.

“The exchange is a great and affordable way to study abroad for a semester or academic year, where Smith students can study in one of almost two dozen various business schools around the world” for the same tuition cost,” says Rachel McCloud, assistant director of the Center for Global Business. “Having exchange students on campus and in Smith classrooms offers many different perspectives for students, providing them the opportunity to flourish in their future roles as leaders in global business.

This semester’s exchange students come from 10 universities, spanning across three continents, and nine countries. These partner institutions are the Bocconi University (Italy), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Hong Kong), IE Business School at IE University (Spain), Lund University (Sweden), SKEMA Business School (France), Singapore Management University (Singapore), Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Belgium), University of Hong Kong Business School (Hong Kong), University of Melbourne (Australia), and Vienna University of Economics & Business (Austria).

In the first two weeks of the semester, incoming students were welcomed to campus with an introductory orientation and several collaborative activities hosted by UMD’s Education Abroad and International Student Services Offices. Over the course of the semester, the graduate and undergraduate exchange students take courses covering both business and non-business topics. The exchange program offers business courses in accounting disciplines, finance, general business, information systems, management, marketing, operations, supply chain, international business, entrepreneurship, and many more. Courses are taught in English, further promoting students to participate in multilingual communities and encourage cultural understanding.

Semester exchange emphasizes the importance of creating the opportunity to internationalize business in order to forge global leaders. McCloud says the goal at the center “is for all students on exchange programs whether here or Smith students abroad to gain skill sets that help with developing a global mindset and becoming global business savvy.”

For more information on BMGT semester exchange programs, read: Study Abroad Start Here.