Wolcowitz said his office may also work on expanding the limited number of Harvard Summer School classes that are taught abroad by Harvard Faculty. Currently these programs include the Italian Language and Culture program in Calabria and Sicily, and the Latin American Literature and History program in Cuzco, Peru.

While the petition process will be simplified and the language requirement lifted immediately, the list of “automatically approved” programs will not be ready by the fall, Wolcowitz wrote in an e-mail.

Students who have studied abroad said the move to help students meet requirements abroad is overdue.

Psychology concentrator Briana R. Cummings ’03 said she did not even try petitioning her department to get concentration credit for psychology courses taken at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she studied this past spring.

“When I heard my tutor describe the requirements, I didn’t find any that met with them at the Sorbonne,” she said. “I would really have loved to fulfill credits while I was abroad.”

Instead, Cummings was forced to use up her electives.

But S. Andrea Sundaram ’02, who studied physics and Italian culture at the University of Bologna his junior year, said Harvard should be wary of going too far to encourage students to study abroad.

“If they make it too easy, Harvard could have the same problem they have at other universities, where people just go for a change of scenery their junior year,” Sundaram said. “It’s good if the people who go are the ones who really want it.”

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.