The Scholar Ship

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The Scholar Ship Logo. Used by permission.

The Scholar Ship (or TSS) is the first oceangoing international education program designed specifically for undergraduate and postgraduate students from around the world.

Programs aboard The Scholar Ship are 16 weeks in duration, and occur two times each year beginning in January and September. Itineraries vary, with most including journeys to seven or eight ports of call in countries on a number of continents.

The program is designed so that the more than 600 students per semester--along with international faculty, staff and crew--form a transnational learning community designed to develop intercultural competencies and leadership skills.

The inaugural voyage will be September 2007 and will embark in Athens (Piraeus), Greece and end in Kobe, Japan.

1 Academic Steward Institutions
2 Academic Programs
3 Onboard Residential Life
4 The Ship
5 External links

[edit] Academic Steward Institutions

The Scholar Ship partners with a select group of worldwide universities to collaborate on the quality oversight and accreditation of all academic offerings and standards through its Consortium of Academic Stewards, whose members include:

Al Akhawayn University (Morocco)
Cardiff University (United Kingdom)
Fudan University (China)
Macquarie University (Australia)
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Mexico)
University of California, Berkeley (USA)
University of Ghana (Ghana)

The role of the Academic Stewards is to establish effective structures and mechanisms to monitor and promote standards of performance in teaching, learning, administration, and student support. Academic programs offered by The Scholar Ship must meet the same quality standards as those on the campuses of the Consortium’s member institutions. The Academic Stewards have designated Macquarie University as the official transcripting institution.

[edit] Academic Programs

The Academic Steward institutions designed the TSS academic program based on five "Learning Circles" (interdisciplinary subjects) for undergraduates and three for graduate students. The courses offered are directly from the college catalogs of the Academic Steward institutions.

The undergraduate studies program of The Scholar Ship consists of two core subjects (Global Issues and Intercultural Communication) taken by all students, and an array of subjects offered within The Scholar Ship's five undergraduate Learning Circles:

International Business and Communication
Sustainable Development
Conflict Studies
Global Cultures and Social Change
Worlds of Art and Culture

Students may also select one subject from a group of General Studies offerings.

Postgraduate students have a variety of options for either earning postgraduate certificates or continuing their studies to earn postgraduate degrees from a select group of institutions worldwide accepting credit for postgraduate study aboard The Scholar Ship. Postgraduate students select a Learning Circle in which they pursue their studies throughout the semester. Specific subjects offered in each Learning Circle are drawn from the curricula of Academic Steward institutions and include offerings in:

International Business
International Communication
International Relations

Students must choose at least one of their elective subjects from within their own postgraduate Learning Circle and two additional subjects from those offered in any Learning Circle.

[edit] Onboard Residential Life

The Scholar Ship academic and residential life programs are designed develop intercultural leadership skills.

Onboard, students are immersed in a multicultural living environment. The international student body, faculty and staff form a learning community that integrates academic, cultural, and social experiences in programs that are intended to enhance personal and professional development.

Every student belongs to a small residential community group. Residential communities congregate throughout the voyage for discussions and community-building activities that support The Scholar Ship’s learning outcomes and social aspects of the program.

Ship and shoreside residential life programs have been developed utilizing Milton Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) ("Towards Ethnorelativism: A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity") as well as Personal Leadership.

[edit] The Ship

An artist's rendering of The Scholar Ship. Used by permission.

The ship itself is a 29,000 ton, 201 meter ocean liner with 398 staterooms that can accommodate 796 students, faculty and staff. The ship also accommodates 416 crew members.