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UW-River Falls has new partner, location for its Experience Scotland study abroad program

October 1, 2021 – The University of Wisconsin-River Falls has identified a new partner and program location for its Experience Scotland program and is again enrolling students in this education abroad experience.

For 34 years, the program was located at Dalkeith House. From that home base, over 4,500 students, staff, and faculty alumni fell in love with the community of Dalkeith, the wide-ranging offerings of Edinburgh and Scotland.

Following the end of its lease of the Dalkeith House, UWRF engaged with Newbattle Abbey College as the new home base for the Experience Scotland program. Newbattle Abbey, an equally historic and unique location for students to live and learn, is a former Cistercian monastery. Today, the site is home to the residential Newbattle Abbey College.

While students enrolled in the Experience Scotland program will continue to take coursework offered by faculty selected from U.S. partner campuses, the opportunity to live and engage in shared programming alongside Scottish students is a particularly exciting aspect of this new partnership.

“We are delighted that our students will continue to have amazing experiences living in, learning about and exploring Scotland,” said UWRF Associate Provost Wes Chapin. “Program alumni have been expressing their enthusiasm for the new location in Dalkeith, and our current students have been excited about the possibility as well.”

“Newbattle Abbey College is delighted to have agreed this contract with the University of Wisconsin-River Falls,” said Marian Docherty, principal, Newbattle Abbey College. “The partnership will be of major benefit to the college as a whole. We look forward to welcoming Wisconsin students and staff to Newbattle and hope this is the start of a lasting partnership.”

The Experience Scotland program is described as an opportunity for students to embark on a new learning experience and personal journey in the safe supportive hands of faculty drawn from the U.S. and Scotland.

“As someone who has contributed to the Experience Scotland programme over many years and met successive generations of American students, I know only too well how life transforming the experience has been for them,” said Gerry Mooney, professor at the Open University in Scotland and Experience Scotland faculty member. “The programme provides an opportunity to learn about a country which enjoys close links to the U.S.; a country in which English is the official language, even if [it] is the Scottish version of English and a unique place to explore and learn about - as well as contributing to your understanding of your own world.”

The Experience Scotland program was established in 1986 as the Wisconsin in Scotland program. Administered at UW-River Falls, the program has a number of partner universities throughout the University of Wisconsin System and beyond, and is open to students throughout the U.S.

UW-River Falls is now accepting applications for the Experience Scotland program for spring semester 2022.

For more information, email kelsey.mclean@uwrf.edu