What is Academic Year Abroad?
Founded in Paris in 1960 by Stetson Holmes, late Vice President of the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, the AYA Paris program (L’Année Universitaire à Paris) is based upon a convention with the Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) and operates as an association but non-lucratif selon la loi de 1901. AYA Madrid is based upon a convenio with the Universidad Carlos III and participates in the Curso de Estudios Hispánicos at Carlos III. Advanced AYA students attend the Universidad Complutense or the Universidad Autónoma as alumnos visitantes. Among the founding fathers of AYA were Marcel Moraud, who later formed COUP (now CUPA), and Hollins Abroad founder Stuart H.L. Degginger. The Paris office of AYA is located at the Columbia University study-abroad center, Reid Hall (4, rue de Chevreuse), in Montparnasse; the Madrid office is at the Facultad de Humanidades at Carlos III; the Siena office is in the city’s centro storico. The AYA home office is in Red Hook, NY.
