Effective Summer 2025, BA, BTh, and BSW students at McGill will no longer be able to pursue Independent Study Away (ISA) programs outside of Canada. The change was initially announced by the Arts Office of Advising and Student Information Services (OASIS) on Nov. 14, 2024, in response to an update to McGill’s Policy on Student Safety Abroad.
An ISA allows students to earn credits towards their McGill degree while studying at a university on a pre-approved list of around 250 institutions. Unlike an exchange, students pursuing an ISA pay tuition directly to their host institution.
As of Summer 2025, OASIS will no longer approve ISA requests for international institutions. Though exchange programs are not affected, OASIS’ decision makes it impossible for students in the Faculty of Arts to earn credits at African institutions, reduces opportunities for studying at Chinese universities by 90 per cent, and lowers the original 73 American institutions they could earn credits from to just 13.
According to Manuel Balan, Associate Dean (Strategic Initiatives and Student Affairs) of the Faculty of Arts, this decision was made due to changes to McGill’s Policy on Student Safety Abroad. The Policy came into force on May 16, 2024, replacing McGill’s International Mobility Guidelines, last updated in 2013.
“[The Policy on Student Safety Abroad] explicitly [references] ISAs outside Canada, and it considers Faculties as being the sponsoring unit for these activities,” Balan wrote to The Tribune. “After an assessment of what compliance and enforcement [with the policy] would entail for the Faculty of Arts, it was determined that we do not have the administrative personnel or expertise necessary to carry out these duties in an appropriate way.”
Balan added that OASIS’ decision to stop approving ISA requests outside of Canada could be reversed in the future if the Student Safety Abroad policy is modified or if the Faculty of Arts sees staffing changes.
Axel Hundemer, Acting Associate Dean (Student Affairs) of the Faculty of Science, affirmed that, for the time being, McGill’s Student Safety Abroad policy will not affect BSc or BA&Sc students’ ability to pursue ISAs outside of Canada.
“The Faculty of Science seeks to support students who are looking for international study opportunities,” Hundemer wrote to The Tribune. “At the same time, it is mindful of the need to be aligned with the University’s Student Safety Abroad policy. We intend to continue to support ISA opportunities for students, with updated processes in place to meet the policy’s standards.”
Soso Cowell, U3 Management, completed an Independent Study Away at the London School of Economics. As a Management student, she is not directly affected by the policy change, but sees why it might pose a challenge for Arts students—her ISA was the only way she could go home for the summer while staying on track with her studies.
“As an international student, sometimes you don’t really want to stay in Montreal after the finals season. I’m English, my parents are based [in London], and I needed to take a summer class, so I [wanted to] try and find a course that’s approved by McGill at home. That was my main motivation [for my ISA],” Cowell told The Tribune.
Despite closing the doors to Independent Study Aways outside Canada, 140 exchange destinations in 39 countries remain available to students in the Faculty of Arts.
To compensate for the loss of ISA opportunities, Balan claims McGill is working to build new exchange agreements to give students more flexibility in their studies and allow them to travel farther and wider.
“There is a constant and ongoing effort to expand exchange opportunities for our students,” Balan wrote. “There are many opportunities to study outside McGill, and the Faculty of Arts is supportive of efforts to increase these opportunities.”
