Semester at Sea

Semester at Sea: Teaching and Living on a Shipboard Campus

Thank you for your interest in Semester at Sea— the world's leading program in global comparative education. Beyond our rich 45-year history, and the high-quality academic experience we provide in conjunction with the University of Virginia, Semester at Sea provides a unique opportunity to create new perspectives and to tap into every individual's passion for learning and understanding.

At the core of the Semester at Sea academic experience is an innovative, stimulating, and flexible team of educators who are passionate about global education. The shipboard environment of Semester at Sea offers the special opportunity for intensely engaged learning and exchange. Because our program is conducted on a ship turned world-traveling university, our faculty and staff are hands-on practitioners who both are excited by and adaptable to a non-traditional living and working shipboard environment.

Collectively, our faculty is expert, dynamic, and curious: 100% hold doctorates or other terminal degrees and 100% have international experience and expertise in one or more of the regions visited. Our faculty—a team of roughly 30 individuals each academic term—are selected for their global scholarship and teaching ability by a University of Virginia dean. They are supported and complemented by a group of 30-35 additional staff members, who are experts in their fields.

Semester at Sea faculty and staff are progressive individuals who are willing to move beyond the confines of the ivory tower to create innovative and responsive global curricula. They are resourceful achievers who can attain academic goals without all of the conveniences they may be accustomed to on their land-based campuses. Almost without exception, faculty members find the voyage to be so professionally and personally rewarding that they apply to sail again.

I want to personally encourage you to join the 45,000 individuals who have sailed and studied the world with our program. Our participants have included Nobel Laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned scholars, distinguished faculty, active staff, lifelong learners, and undergraduates fro

m across the United States and around the world.

Join us on Semester at Sea knowing that the experience will open doors to you for creative achievement and personal success, and will likely change your life forever.

Sincerely,

Dr. Les McCabe
President
Institute for Shipboard Education / Semester at Sea

See our diverse academic community in action by browsing a photo gallery on our website.