The Semester At Sea®
Academic Program

Note: The following information comes from Semester At Sea's "A Voyage Of Discovery" brochure.

Semester At Sea is designed to be a global semester in your undergraduate career. As academic sponsor of the program, the University of Pittsburgh grants academic credit for participation in Semester at Sea. The academic program is reviewed in its entirety, with all faculty and courses approved through the respective departments within the University's College of Arts and Sciences. The University appoints the Academic Dean for each voyage, who is responsible for academic planning and implementation of the program during the course of the voyage. Credits earned meet the required standards, permitting transfer to your university or college.

The shipboard curriculum provides you with a series of insights into various societies and allows you to dissect and assess what you observe. Not only will you develop the ability to understand new cultures as they are encountered, but you will also gain the intellectual tools that will allow you to relate past experiences to future situations. Similarly, you are called upon to examine crisis issues of global concern, such as those relating to environment, population, foreign policy interrelationships and economics, in the context of the nations visited. The ship truly becomes a campus on which you will work in a traditional classroom setting and the world a laboratory from which approximately 20% of the credit earned for a course is fulfilled. The integration of classroom and international fieldwork enables Semester at Sea to provide a learning environment unattainable on a traditional land campus.

The Classroom Experience

Classes meet daily while at sea, providing classroom contact as on a traditional land campus. Most Semester at Sea classes average between 20 and 30 students and are conducted with emphasis on maximum student involvement. The normal student load is 12 semester hours (four courses). The maximum academic load permitted is 15 semester hours. Students may not enroll for less than 12 semester hours.

Outside the classroom the shipboard setting cultivates the development of close relationships between you and the faculty. There is considerably more time for student-faculty interaction, in contrast to the home campus. Since most faculty are required to have resident experience in countries on the itinerary, this interaction helps insure that you are both personally and academically ready to examine new cultures as the ship moves from one country to another.

The Faculty

The search for faculty who will relate well in this special academic environment begins more than a year prior to each sailing. In addition to professional academic preparation, the University looks for special characteristics and background. Semester at Sea faculty must have a proven record of successful undergraduate teaching. Many have direct knowledge of the areas being visited, usually through residence or study abroad.

The Institute and the University of Pittsburgh look for evidence of a professor's ability to be effective in a situation requiring a considerable degree of flexibility. Most faculty members are on sabbatical or personal leave from their home institutions and, like the student body, they represent colleges and universities throughout the country. In addition, the resident faculty is augmented by interport lecturers. The Institute arranges for university professors or representatives of government or business to join the ship at an earlier port and to sail from one country to another with the Semester at Sea community. These resource persons present seminars concerning their countries, participate in informal discussions, and make themselves available for a variety of class presentations. By providing a personal introduction to their nations' histories, cultures and customs, the interport lecturers help prepare students for more effective field experiences.

Courses

As the central intellectual focus for the semester, the CORE Course is required for all students. International Studies 1000, or Core, is a multi-disciplinary course that provides an overview of the areas and issues encountered during the voyage. Core serves to reinforce the content of the other courses taken and also enhances the field experience. The Core Director orchestrates the resources of all faculty on board, as well as interport lecturers who join the voyage en route and bring specific expertise in a particular country or region. The course particularly seeks to reveal the complexity, dynamics and interdependency of existing global systems. All students enroll in the CORE course.

In addition to Core, you can choose from approximately fifty courses, both lower and upper division, offered through the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. A diverse selection of courses is offered each semester making it possible for you to consider Semester at Sea regardless of your major. Each semester, courses are offered in the disciplines listed, ena ling you to choose courses that will apply to your major or to complete general degree requirements.

Other Information About Semester At Sea:

Contacting Semester At Sea

The official Semester At Sea Home Page.

Semester At Sea

University of Pittsburgh
811 William Pitt Union
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone: 800-854-0195
FAX: 412-648-2298
E-Mail: shipboard@sas.ise.pitt.edu

"Semester at Sea" is a registered mark of the Institute for Shipboard Education

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©1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Karin Rex
Updated July, 2000 (Origination date October, 1995) / Karin Rex, ComputerEase