The Faculty voted unanimously to approve two significant policy changes yesterday that will drastically simplify studying abroad and require some evidence for the Administrative Board to investigate peer disputes, including sexual assault.

Starting in the fall, the study abroad process will be streamlined, with a list of approved programs and a loosening of language requirements for students interested in foreign study.

With yesterday’s vote, the Faculty expressed an unprecedented degree of support for study abroad.

“A significant experience in a foreign country and culture should be viewed as an invaluable part of a Harvard education for all Harvard College students,” the proposal read.

The changes approved yesterday will create a “two-track system” for petitioning to study abroad. Students may either continue to develop their own plans of study or simply choose from a list of approved programs.

Currently, there is no official list of programs that will automatically earn a student course credit.

In another effort to simplify the process, students will no longer be required to take a year of classes in their host country’s language before going abroad.

Once abroad, however, they must take either one course in the language of the host country or one course on that language that is taught in English.

But the Faculty said this requirement could be waived for certain special circumstances.

The vote of approval capped a year-long effort by the Faculty to facilitate foreign study opportunities for students.

In the fall, the Faculty commissioned James T. Grimmelmann ’99 to produce a report examining the state of study abroad at Harvard.

As a result, the Faculty’s Standing Committee on Study Out of Residence was charged with shaping a set of recommendations for revamping Harvard’s study abroad system. The Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE), the Educational Policy Committee and the Faculty Council used those recommendations to craft the legislation approved yesterday.

Rohit Chopra ’04, one of the students members of CUE, told the Faculty at yesterday’s meeting that changing policy is only the first step in making study abroad a more attractive option to students.

“It is critical that this strong support turn into significant conversation and even debate within departments of how studying abroad will most contribute to the overall intellectual experience of their concentrators,” Chopra said.

The Committee on Study Out of Residence will work this summer to implement the changes approved yesterday.