Mission Statement

ASE seeks to provide academically ambitious liberal arts undergraduates of diverse backgrounds and from a range of US institutions with a distinctively English study abroad experience that will have a lasting positive impact on their lives and, through them, on the lives of others.

Utilising the exceptional academic, professional, social, cultural, and natural resources available in the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath – as well as in Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and other key locations in England and Wales - the Programme offers extraordinary opportunities for curricular and co-curricular learning. Through ASE, students are encouraged to take an active role in designing a study abroad experience uniquely tailored to their own interests, passions, and academic needs.

ASE aims to inspire in its students an enduring love of learning in its various forms by fostering intellectual curiosity, social and cultural adventurousness, and the ability to read, write, think, and communicate in nuanced, critical, and creative ways. Regular opportunities for cross-cultural encounters and encounters with different social, historical, political, intellectual, and personal perspectives are integral to the Programme’s design. We seek both to help students investigate, value, and cultivate their singularity and to reflect thoughtfully on their connectedness to others in the hope that this awareness can be turned to positive personal and social advantage.

In all things, we strive to contribute to the shared goal of helping students become ‘informed, open-minded and responsible people who are attentive to diversity across the spectrum of differences’*.

* Global Learning Value Rubric, Association of American Colleges and Universities