Records of the Institute for Shipboard Education

The Institute for Shipboard Education was founded in 1971 and manages Semester at Sea, which began in 1963. The Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE) operates as a non-profit organization and offers study abroad education programs and academic courses at the baccalaureate level while aboard a cruise vessel. The ISE serves students from academic institutions throughout the world.

Semester at Sea may have been inspired by the first around-the-world voyage led by Professor James Edwin Lough of New York University in 1926. Although the voyage was a success, the concept of shipboard education did not fully take hold until the 1960s when it was resurrected as the University of the Seven Seas by California businessman Bill Hughes. Although the University of the Seven Seas was authorized by the state of California to issue transcripts and award diplomas, it was never fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. This prevented it from assuring students that their credits would be transferable to, or recognized by, any other school. As a result, in 1965 Hughes decided to affiliate with Chapman College in Orange, California which provided academic credentials and became World Campus Afloat (WCA).

In the late 1960s, Dr. M.A. Griffiths, a professor of Middle Eastern history at Chapman, was named Dean and Academic Vice President, (later Vice President of International Studies) and led the program. C.Y. Tung, a shipping magnate based in Hong Kong, took interest in the program as part of his dream of a United Nations University on a ship. Through negotiations between Griffiths and Tung, an agreement was struck and Tung provided World Campus Afloat with a ship and ship management expertise to launch the program into a new era. The first ship Tung provided was the Queen Elizabeth, which he completely refurbished. Following the destruction of the ship by fire, Tung purchased another ship for the program. That ship was christened the SS Universe.

In 1976 Chapman College, experiencing financial difficulties, ceased sponsorship of the program and the University of Colorado, Boulder was named the academic sponsor. At that point the program was renamed Semester at Sea (SAS), and in 1981 the University of Pittsburgh assumed sponsorship, sponsoring the program until 2006. In 2006 the University of Virginia became the sponsor until 2016 when Colorado State University (CSU) was named the academic sponsor. The ISE continues to operate in conjunction with CSU.