• Explore Adelaide and South Australia, examining how urban planning, sustainability initiatives, public policies, and regional conditions shape the environments in which people live, work, and interact.
• Experience learning beyond the classroom through field excursions, neighborhood observations, site visits, engagement with local experts and organizations, and an excursion to Kangaroo Island.
• Examine the connections between sustainability, health, and equity, exploring how transportation, housing, green spaces, environmental conditions, infrastructure, and access to community resources influence well-being across urban and regional settings.
• Develop an international comparative perspective by examining Australian approaches to sustainable and healthy communities—including contrasts between metropolitan Adelaide and Kangaroo Island—alongside those of U.S. communities.
• Earn six KU credit hours in Environmental Studies.

Tentative Program Dates: June 18 (depart the U.S.) - July 7, 2027.

Sustainable Cities, Healthy Communities: Adelaide as a Living Laboratory is an interdisciplinary program that uses Adelaide, South Australia, as the setting for examining the relationships among urban sustainability, public policy, governance, and population health. Participants on the program will explore how cities are planned, governed, and experienced, and how decisions about the built environment, transportation, housing, public infrastructure, and environmental resources shape community well-being and health inequalities.

Adelaide provides a particularly interesting setting for this program. Its compact urban form, extensive parklands, distinctive planning history, public transportation systems, and evolving sustainability initiatives offer opportunities to examine how urban policies influence environmental conditions and quality of life. The city's location also allows students to consider the relationships between metropolitan development, regional environmental management, and the social and ecological conditions of South Australia.

Adelaide, Australia is a capital city of about 1.4 million people, known for its coastal beauty, comfortable climate, relaxed lifestyle and reputation as one of Australia’s most livable cities. For students of environmental studies, urban planning, and public administration, Adelaide offers a compelling real‑world case study: it’s a city designed around a green belt, committed to renewable energy, and actively experimenting with climate‑resilient infrastructure and biodiversity conservation. 

Adelaide is also packed with culture—street festivals, live music, markets, beaches, and wine regions all within easy reach. During free time, students can explore Glenelg Beach, shop at the Central Market or catch a show at the Adelaide Fringe.

All students will enroll in the following two courses for a total of 6 credit hours:

• EVRN 420/720: Urban Sustainability and Local Governance: Adelaide as a Living Laboratory (3 credits): This course examines urban sustainability through a governance lens, with particular emphasis on local government. Students study how councils and other public institutions identify environmental problems, establish priorities, select policy instruments, coordinate across levels of government, engage communities, allocate resources, and implement plans. Land use, mobility, green infrastructure, urban water, biodiversity, and restoration serve as concrete cases through which students examine authority, administrative capacity, intergovernmental relationships, public participation, and implementation trade-offs. 
   
• EVRN 420/720: Urban and Population Health: Social Determinants of Health in South Australia (3 credits): This course uses Adelaide and South Australia to examine population health through the social determinants of health. Rather than focusing on health-care delivery, students investigate how housing, income, education, transportation, food environments, environmental conditions, social infrastructure, and public policy shape opportunities for health across places and populations.

In addition, students enrolled in KU Core 34 can complete the Global Culture goal and earn an additional three hours of course credit by completing a study abroad experience and UNIV 342: Sponsored Educational Experience.  UNIV 342 is a 3-credit hour asynchronous course that, when combined with a study abroad experience, satisfies the Global Culture goal of KU Core 34. 

Participants will stay in centrally located, shared occupancy accommodations.  Breakfast will be provided daily.  Several lunches and group group dinners are also included in the program.  

All students have unique things to consider when studying abroad. A Traveler Profile is a set of personal factors, characteristics or life experiences that could impact daily life abroad. Your individual Traveler Profile may include things such as your age, foreign language proficiency, gender, medical history, medication use, mental health, mobility, piercings and tattoos, travel experience, and more. 

SAGE is dedicated to creating international engagement opportunities that meet the needs of all our students and providing resources to support you through the process of studying abroad. Before selecting a program, consider how your Traveler Profile may impact your experience abroad in unique ways and talk with your Program Coordinator about any program-specific concerns. Students with documented disabilities should discuss any accommodation needs with their Program Coordinator early in the planning process. 

Check our Traveler Profile pages linked below for information specific to you and other students who may be on your program. 

• Adult Learners and Non-Traditional Students
• First Generation Students
• Physical and Mental Health Histories
• Religious, Spiritual, and Non-Religious Students
• Sexual and Gender Diversity
• Students of Color Abroad
• Students with Children
• Students with Financial Need
• Veterans, Active Duty, and ROTC
• Visible and Invisible Disabilities 

This program is open to undergraduate and graduate students from KU and other accredited U.S. colleges and universities.  It will be of particular interest to students exploring environmental studies, sustainability, urban systems, and the relationships between environmental and social conditions. The program is also well suited to students in Public Affairs and Administration, Law and Society, Political Science, Sociology, Economics, and related fields.

Students should be in good academic standing with a minimum 2.5 GPA.

Program Budget

Program Cost for Sustainable Cities, Healthy Communities: Adelaide as a Living Laboratory

Scholarships

• Students with financial need (a FAFSA on file for the current academic year) can apply for a scholarship through KU Study Abroad here.
• Students with a major in the KU College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) are eligible for the CLAS Study Abroad Scholarship.
• Students in the KU Honors Program may apply for an Honors Opportunity Award.
• Pell Grant recipients are eligible to apply for the Gilman Scholarship, a nationally competitive scholarship for Pell Grant recipients. Contact KU Study Abroad for more information.
• Visit the KU Study Abroad Costs & Funding page for additional information. 

Program Directors: Dr. Dorothy Daley and Dr. Rachel Krause

Dr. Dorothy Daley is a Professor at the University of Kansas with a joint appointment in the School of Public Affairs & Administration and the Environmental Studies Program.  Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of environmental and public health policy, bureaucratic politics, public participation, and collaborative decision-making

Dr. Rachel Krause is a Professor at the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration. Her research engages theories of urban governance, the selection and use of policy tools, collaboration, and the influence of institutions on policy and management decisions to understand the dynamics of urban sustainability and climate protection initiatives.

Study Abroad Program Coordinator: 
Angela Perryman, Director
Have a quick question?  Email me at:  aperryman@ku.edu