Emerson, Franklin University Switzerland Offering Global Degree in Political Communication

Students interested in international and domestic politics will soon be able to earn a Global Bachelor of Arts in International and Political Communication, through a program taught at both Emerson College and Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland, that advances Emerson’s commitment to creating a borderless campus.

“Emerson is known internationally as the premier institution of higher learning for creative leaders in communications, the arts, and the liberal arts,” President Lee Pelton said in a statement. “Our dual degree program with Franklin University Switzerland will provide students with international perspectives on U.S. domestic politics and communication, uniquely preparing them for future leadership in these burgeoning fields.”

Applications will be accepted beginning in Fall 2019, for admittance to the Fall 2020 semester.

Learn more about the Global BA in International and Political Communication

For the first two years of the program, students take liberal arts, and foundational communication and politics courses at Franklin, from which they will earn an associate’s degree. Their final two years will be spent at Emerson, completing the major in political communication.

Emerson Provost Michaele Whelan said the program’s curriculum offers a distinctly global academic and cultural experience.

“Through the Emerson-Franklin dual degree program, students will be immersed in rigorous liberal arts, political science, and political communications coursework, taking them on intellectual journeys with international perspectives while studying around the world,” Whelan said.

During the program’s semester interim and summers, students will be able to deepen their experience by completing an Emerson course at the College’s Kasteel Well program in the Netherlands, a new Emerson program being offered in Sydney, or electives on the Boston campus. The dual degree program enables both Emerson and Franklin to offer financial aid to qualified students.

“The initiative is the result of a deep and long-term collaboration between Franklin University Switzerland and Emerson College as a way to provide programs and pathways for students that leverage the unique strengths of both institutions,” Sara Steinert Borella, vice president and dean of academic affairs at Franklin University Switzerland, said.

In September 2018, Emerson announced its first collaboration with Franklin: two accelerated 3+1 degree programs that allow students to complete a bachelor’s degree at Franklin and a master’s degree at Emerson in four calendar years, plus one summer.

Pelton said, “The partnership also aligns with Emerson’s vision to create a borderless campus – which we see as vital to educating the world’s future generations of artists and storytellers.”

The first step in creating a borderless campus came in Summer 2018, when Emerson announced the new Global BFA in Film Art with Paris College of Art. In that joint degree program, students earn a BFA in three years, studying in Paris, Boston, and Kasteel Well.

The College also offers a 3+1 master’s degree program with Blanquerna University – Ramon Llull in Barcelona, and plans to establish programs in Sydney and Hong Kong by 2022.