Study Away Program

Williams in Africa’s Cape Town Policy in Action Program

The Cape Town Policy in Action program is an innovative experiential program that teaches students about South African politics, society, and development and cultivates their research skills through a special seminar/tutorial and fieldwork placement at the Economic Policy Research Institute in Cape Town, which has a fifteen year history of working with Williams on South African capacity building. The program partners with the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) and CIEE to offer a unifying seminar on contemporary social and political issues in South Africa that brings Williams students together with South African Parliamentarians and government ministers in a collaborative internship.

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In addition, Williams students have the opportunity to take courses at the University of Cape Town along with those offered by EPRI to members of the National Parliament and government officials from around the world. Williams students combine this course work with research-oriented fieldwork and personal experience of a society that is embedded in the global economy under challenging circumstances. They encounter and learn about globalization from a perspective that is unfamiliar to most of our students – one where opportunities for a better future struggle with the realities of dramatically uneven levels of development and prosperity. As one of the most unequal societies in the world, South Africa is a microcosm of the new global village, with all its opportunities and risks.

Visit the CIEE website to learn more about housing, food, and everything else that’s included. To apply, please use the Policy in Action Program application.