The Scholar Ship --- A Transnational Learning Community
Program Introduction:

As the nature of work and study rapidly takes on a global dimension, employers are increasingly seeking university graduates who have demonstrated the ability to successfully operate across cultural, political, and linguistic boundaries. Developed to meet this challenge, The Scholar Ship’s objective is to create a distinctive transnational learning community that develops intercultural leadership by shaping beliefs, attitudes, and values through high-quality university-level education programs and field experiences.

> An Intercultural Knowledge Management Curriculum serving post-graduate students.
Post-graduate students will enroll in courses that incorporate an Intercultural Knowledge Management theme. As private and public organizations operating in the global economy seek to recognize and manage new forms of knowledge and competencies, Intercultural Knowledge Management is rapidly developing as a precious resource for organizational success and achievement.
Topics will include:
-- How the intercultural knowledge, ideas, and experience of an organization’s workforce are significant elements in the organization’s intellectual capital
-- How organizational competitive advantage flows fundamentally from the ideas, experience, and intercultural knowledge of an organization’s workforce
-- How an organization’s strategic processes and consequent economic performance can be improved through the effective integration of intercultural learning practices
Post-graduate students who complete a semester aboard The Scholar Ship will earn a Certificate in Intercultural Knowledge Management, attesting to this achievement.

> An academically integrated experiential education program, both onboard and onshore, serving as a key learning tool.
Field programs during port calls will allow students in each Learning Circle sufficient time to explore professional issues inherent in a range of cultures and countries. Onboard programs leverage the multi-national dimension of the student body and faculty to engage students in a manner unique to The Scholar Ship. Illustrative examples of onboard and onshore experiential opportunities, led by faculty and in-country experts, include:
-- Hospitality Management and Tourism students co-manage onboard ship operations, including hotel, food and beverage, and purser services.
-- Students from same countries coordinate special events such as “Dinner in Brazil,” whereby the onboard community is able to experience the food, drink, music, and other social customs of their country.
-- International Business students tour factories, meeting with leaders and workers to learn first-hand about cultural differences in management styles.
-- Environmental Studies students, engaged in a service-learning project, help build a water purification system for a rural village.
-- Journalism students meet with faculty and peers of similar backgrounds in a university cultural exchange, sharing examples of print media from their home countries.
Field-study experiences will be enhanced by the residential life and academic programs within Learning Circles. Students will have the opportunity to jointly reflect upon their experiences and to draw conclusions for further experimentation and exploration in the next port of call.

> Globally relevant learning outcomes resulting from purposeful integration of intercultural living and experiential learning.
Residential and classroom interaction onboard this diverse and multicultural campus will be enhanced by interactive programming both on and off the ship. Upon completion of The Scholar Ship program, students will be better prepared for personal and professional success in the 21st Century. In addition to achieving further competence in their chosen fields of study, students will have enhanced their ability to:
1) think creatively and act with confidence in diverse cultural environments;
2) find, evaluate and integrate information from a transnational perspective;
3) realize life goals through the ability to understand and navigate through the complexities of a global environment;
4) act as dynamic leaders of local, national and global communities; and
5) help shape a more compassionate and cooperative world.
Progress towards these outcomes will be assessed and monitored through the use of an innovative intercultural assessment system.

> The Scholar Ship Research Institute
The Scholar Ship Research Institute, in collaboration with world-class research organizations, will conduct research on effective methods of fostering intercultural leadership and the pedagogy of the multi-cultural classroom. Studies onboard will contribute to knowledge and improve The Scholar Ship’s delivery of programs to accomplish its fundamental goals. Examples of such studies include:
-- Research on the effectiveness of various approaches used to develop intercultural leadership among The Scholar Ship’s students
-- Methods of measuring intercultural competence
-- Best-practices in teaching students with divergent learning styles in the same classroom

Facilities and Accommodations
The vessel chosen to serve as The Scholar Ship’s campus will offer modern, comfortable living quarters and public spaces that include dining rooms, exercise facilities, library, pool and sunbathing deck, theatre, and other recreational facilities. Refitting existing cruise ship facilities to conform to the demands of The Scholar Ship’s learning-community environment will provide an opportunity to innovate with classroom configuration, furnishings, lighting, technology, and state-of-the-art educational tools.
Students will be strategically placed on residential decks, separated by gender, and using innovative residential life models to maximize intercultural interaction. Each cabin will accommodate two students.
Residential Life and the Integrated Experiential Education Program
Living aboard a ship as a member of a transnational learning community comprised of individuals from different cultures will be exciting and intense. The inherent challenges will directly correlate to the number of learning opportunities each participant will encounter. Residential advisers trained in intercultural management will offer students the emotional and mental support they need in order to maximize learning. Professionally designed and tested assessment tools will be utilized to evaluate and guide the intercultural learning process.
The Scholar Ship will integrate both onboard and onshore experiential programs with the curriculum to maximize the opportunities for intercultural learning. Using established models of experiential education, the comprehensive onboard field program includes a dynamic voyage-wide orientation, conflict-resolution training, pre-port briefings and post-port debriefings, open microphone evaluation presentations, guided reflection and discussion sessions, and structured closing activities. Onshore programs will be integrated into the classroom curriculum.
The residential program will also ensure that naturally occurring informal learning encounters such as eating meals with peers, faculty and staff will be enhanced by planned elements such as student clubs, physical-fitness activities, recreational games, spiritual and religious services, performing and visual arts events, organized social gatherings, athletic competitions, and special celebrations.
Support Services
Common services will be provided to ensure the experience on each voyage is comfortable, convenient, and most importantly, hospitable. Facilities include: laundry, healthcare clinic, book store, convenience store, restaurants, and multiple Internet cafes.
Counselors trained in intercultural conflict-resolution will be on duty, as will ESL teachers for tutoring and assistance to non-native speakers of English.

Ensuring Academic Quality
A passionate commitment to quality underpins The Scholar Ship’s planning and development process. The Scholar Ship is currently engaging a select group of universities, each representing a key region of the world, to collaborate in the quality oversight and accreditation of all academic course offerings and standards through a Consortium of Academic Stewards. The Consortium will ensure the continued relevance and quality of the program’s curriculum. Academic programs offered by The Scholar Ship will meet the same quality standards as those offered on the campuses of its partner universities.
Macquarie University, Australia and Fu Dan University, China have agreed in principle to become charter members of the Consortium of Academic Stewards. The Scholar Ship seeks to collaborate with other world-class institutions that can satisfy the highest expectations. Additional members of the Consortium will be announced as agreements are reached. A separate advisory body of internationally prominent business and organizational leaders will also be appointed by the president to guide strategic directions of the program.

Dates and Timing
The Scholar Ship’s inaugural voyage is scheduled to commence in September 2007. Subsequent voyages will be approximately 16 weeks in duration, spanning from September to December and January to May of each year.

Admissions & Enrollment
Anticipated Entry Requirements:

Undergraduate students will be expected to have completed the equivalent of one year of university study and to have successfully demonstrated the capacity to succeed in a rigorous academic setting. Post-graduate students will have earned a recognized undergraduate degree in a field associated with The Scholar Ship’s curriculum.
The following English-proficiency requirements are anticipated for non-native speakers:
-- TOEFL: minimum score of 550 on the paper test (213 on the computer test)
-- IELTS: minimum overall band score of 6.0, with no single band score below 5.5

Credit Transfer
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be issued an official transcript that documents all academic credits. This transcript will be issued by one of the members of the Consortium of Academic Stewards, a university of global prominence. Students can easily determine how their credits will be counted toward their degree program at their home institution by consulting with their academic advisors or other university officials who are responsible for granting transfer credit.

Visas
Due to The Scholar Ship’s status as a maritime enterprise, students, faculty and staff alike may be granted special tourist status recognized by most countries. Obtaining visas will be the responsibility of the admitted participants, though. To assist in identifying visa requirements for participants, The Scholar Ship is developing an interactive Visa Requirement Tool for its website. This facility will provide step-by-step instructions on how to most efficiently obtain necessary visas from those countries requiring them.

Costs
The full cost for The Scholar Ship program is itemized as follows:
Tuition (including field programs in four ports)
Voyage (including room, board, and academic travel)

Itineraries
Both regionally focused and global itineraries are planned. Specific itineraries will be designed with input from Academic Stewards, professional port planners, and the leadership of the field program.