Europe

Penn & Europe

Penn’s connections to Europe span more than two centuries. 

In a bold departure from the customary practice at the time, Penn’s founder, Benjamin Franklin, called for the University to embrace the teaching of modern languages, including French, German and Spanish. Today, Penn engages in a wide variety of academic partnerships, robust faculty research projects, and notable student abroad programs throughout Europe, all of which support Penn’s strong and growing commitment to global engagement.

Did You Know?

650+

Penn students, on average, participate annually in credit-bearing study abroad programs in Europe.

Pictured Left

Professor Mélanie Péron (not pictured) of French and Francophone Studies led a Penn Global Seminar focusing on the dark historical period of WWII France through the study of the visible and invisible traces left on French memory and the Parisian landscape. Students began the course by studying the conventional history of Vichy France, then turned to the writers who testified of that time, some as victims, others as witnesses or coming from the post-memory generation. Students traveled to France over spring break in 2024.

Penn & Europe

Post-Graduate Study

Penn has a long-standing tradition of supporting exceptional students in pursuing post-graduate study opportunities in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, through a wide range of scholarships.

Rhodes Scholars

The Rhodes Scholarship is a fully funded, full time, postgraduate award which enables young people from around the world to study at the University of Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship aims to develop public-spirited leaders and promote international understanding and peace. Learn more about Penn’s 2025 Rhodes Scholar.

Marshall Scholars

Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom. Up to fifty Scholars are selected each year to study at graduate level at an institution in the United Kingdom in any field of study. Learn about Penn’s 2025 Marshall Scholars.

Thouron Scholars

The Thouron Award is graduate exchange program between the United Kingdom and the University of Pennsylvania, providing generous scholarships for postgraduate study abroad and strengthening the ties between Penn and the United Kingdom. Learn about Penn’s 2024 Thouron Scholars.

Churchill Scholars

The Churchill Scholarship was established at the request of Sir Winston Churchill to depeen the US–UK partnership in order to advance science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic. This scholarship enables American students to complete one year of graduate study in engineering, mathematics, and science at Churchill College, University of Cambridge. Learn about Penn’s 2024 Churchill Scholar.

Gates Cambridge Scholars

Each year Gates Cambridge offers full-cost scholarships to outstanding applicants from countries outside the UK to pursue a postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge. Approximately two-thirds of the awards are offered to PhD students. Learn about Penn’s last Gates Cambridge Scholar, recognized in 2022.

Partnership In Focus

University of Edinburgh

In the late 1970s, the University of
Pennsylvania and University of Edinburgh
began an exchange program, becoming
Penn’s first major program for exchange
of undergraduate students with a foreign
university. To this day, the program remains
one of Penn’s oldest and longest continuing
exchange partnerships for undergraduate
students.

Penn & Europe

Campus Initiatives

Penn actively engages with Europe through a range of partnerships and initiatives that foster academic collaboration, research, and student exchange. 

Penn Medicine London

Penn Medicine expanded to London to explore prevention and treatment strategies for all diseases and to provide enhanced access for patients seeking care. The initiative creates opportunities for innovative collaborations between Penn and medical schools in the UK and EU, ensuring the  bright medical minds continue to share ideas and learn from each other. 

Penn Medicine Building Surgical Capacity in Ukraine

The University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have partnered on a comprehensive effort to develop regional experts in advanced surgical techniques and build surgical capacity generally within Ukraine.

Penn Museum European Archeology Section

The European Collection holds an estimated 20,000 objects most of which are exclusively archaeological. The Penn Museum began acquiring prehistoric European archaeological collections in 1892. Highlights of this section include the Swiss Lake Collection, Central European Collection, and Western European Prehistoric Collection.

Penn Museum Mediterranean Section

The Collections of the Mediterranean Section comprise some 34,000 objects of Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Cypriot, and Bronze Age Aegean origins, as well as small numbers of artifacts from related culture areas. Specifically, the Collections include a large number of Greek coins, Roman glass, and nearly 500 bronze reproductions of objects from Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Partnership In Focus

Wharton-INSEAD Alliance

The Alliance is a commitment from both Wharton and INSEAD to enable and encourage mutual collaborative activities for faculty, students, executives, and alumni. The Wharton INSEAD Center for Global Research & Education supports the development of innovative programs and teaching materials involving faculty members from the two schools.

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Penn & Europe

Campus Centers

Penn actively engages with Europe through a range of partnerships and initiatives that foster academic collaboration, research, and student exchange. 

Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies Department (FIGS)

The Francophone, Italian and Germanic Studies Department (FIGS) at the University of Pennsylvania is committed to the study of culture through language, literature, and visual media, offering language courses in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Swedish, and Yiddish and advanced seminars on literature and cultura in a global context. Notably, FIGS is home to the oldest academic program in German Studies in North America.

Russian and East Europen Studies Department

The Russian and East European Studies department is dedicated to advancing knowledge of Russia and Eastern Europe, offering an array of Eastern European language courses, including Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Ukranian.

Spanish and Portuguese Department

Offering an undergraduate and graduate program, the Department is also home to the Hispanic Review, a quarterly journal devoted to research in Hispanic and Brazilian literatures and cultures. Edited since 1933, the journal features essays and book reviews on the diverse cultural manifestations of Iberia and Latin America, from the medieval period to the present.

Center for Italian Studies

The first of its kind in the United States, Penn’s Center for Italian Studies was created in 1978. The Center’s mission is to support Penn’s faculty and students in their research and pedagogy and foster relationships between Penn and the stakeholders beyond campus.