Hi there!

I am currently studying Business and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School and my main philosophical interest is (you guessed it!) Utilitarianism.

In the fall of 2014 I will be studying abroad for one semester (Undergraduate) and I am currently in the process of looking for interesting universities to apply for. Because I find the treatment of Utilitarianism at my university to be superficial and even somewhat hostile it would be nice to go to a university, which has a full in-depth course on the topic. Searching for such courses through Google isn't getting me far though.

That's why I've registered here - to ask for your help in finding these courses and to hear any other recommendations regarding choosing a university abroad for an academic focus on applied and theoretical Utilitarianism (ones with good utilitarian student societies for instance).

I don't know if there are philosophy courses that have utilitarianism as a subject, per se, but University College London runs the Bentham Project, so are bound to have some people studying it. Oxford University also has a strong consequentialist leaning, with a couple of depts who might be of interest if you're interested in the applied side (have a look at the Uehiro Centre and/or the Future of Humanity Institute).

I'm not sure about specific unis other than those, but Scandinavia seems to have quite a strong utilitarian presence. Look up eg Torbjorn Tannsjo at Stockholm University. Ditto Melbourne - Monash Uni seems to have been the home to prominent consequentialist/utilitarians including Peter Singer, Jack Smart, and Julian Savulescu, though I don't know if there are any there now.

Thanks for the reply!

Interesting suggestions. My university's exchange program collaborates with Monash, so that's a definite possibility if I can find some interesting courses to take. Oxford would also be cool, although I think it might be hard to gain admission as my uni has no arrangements with them. The Uehiro Centre appears to run an interesting undergrad course on practical ethics.

These are the dedicated courses I've been able to find myself:

Uni of Arizona
Uni of Oregon
Memorial Uni
Loyola Uni Chicago

UCL also runs a course dedicated to Bentham, but I would prefer one with more focus on post-Mill utilitarian theory or on practical ethics, such as the one at Oxford.

I am still very interested in hearing about other courses and student societies, as my university doesn't have exchange arrangements with most of these places and it would be nice to have other options than North America. Any information is appreciated.