Ship University: learning, US power1926

As a graduate, James Lough had wanted to link exper­ien­ce with education. Later Lough became Prof of Experimental Psychology at NYU (1901-27), when he wanted to create a new kind of education that allowed students to learn on location. Lough took students to places like Grand Central Station and Wall St, to learn from experts.

 Students arrive on board  

This became the foundation of an experiment that he ran in 1913 to take students offshore; he ran the first study abroad programme in Am­erica that gave university credit for travel exper­ience. And it ran again in 1914. But not until 1923 were around-the-world cruises planned.

Students gathered on the ship deck for lecture
Semester At Sea

One of Lough’s most significant partners was Constantine Rais­es, a Greek student who as­s­isted with nec­essary ac­ademic and it­inerary preparations. Al­th­ough the programme was success­fully planned, en­rol­ments fell short and sailings were postponed. NYU dropped its programme sponsorship.

Shipping companies used to make money by bring­ing poor immigrants from Europe to US. But when the US intro­d­uced im­migration restrictions in 1921, that bu­siness model coll­ap­sed. Thus the shipping companies needed to find a new bus­iness quickly. They converted their  sto­r­age acc­omm­odation into Tourist Third Class and tried to fill it with stud­ents.

This made ship travel a perfect fit for Lough's passion for learning on-site. And a Float­ing University was the perfect fit for the shipping co­mpanies' new business model. It could be successful globally with stud­ents, ad­vertising a whole new, cheap third-class trav­el business.

Exercising and socialising around the ship's pool   

 

New York University/NYU had initially backed the ship venture but pulled out a few months prior to its departure. NYU real­ised that study­ing ab­road could be dangerous. Furthermore it threatened their academic model, i.e to con­t­rol the educ­at­ion the students would receive in the C20th. The universities wanted to determine “what was know­led­ge”, not the silly st­ud­ents on a ship travel­l­ing the world. Yet des­p­ite NYU with­drawing from the experiment, the ship university went ahead.

Because the prog­ram­me was no longer spons­ored by a single college, uni­versities were ea­ger to join and applications poured in. Thus Lough’s original vision eventually led to the suc­cessful maiden voyage of SS Ryndam in Sept 1926 when the grand educat­ional experiment started. It departed New York, to take 8 months. SS Ryndam was decor­ated with flags from stem to stern, thousands li­n­ing the Fifth St pier to see off their loved ones, the excited students coming from 143 colleges in 40 st­ates, as well as Canada, Cuba and Hawaii.

The ship had 504 stud­ents and 64 staff aboard, dock­ing in c50 ports. The University World Cruise, the brain­child of NYU Ps­ychology Pro­fessor James Lough, was in­tended to br­oaden stud­ents' learning, especial­ly in global aff­airs. Lough thought the voyage would help stud­ents bec­ome Citizens of the World, linking education with real experience.

As the ship sailed, Lough described the plan: This shall not be a mere sightseeing tour, but a college year of educ­at­ional travel and sys­tematic study to develop an interest in foreign affairs, to train stud­ents to think in world terms, and to stren­g­th­en internat­ional good will. The lectures covered business studies, history, politics, biology, economics and many other subjects.

During the 8 month voy­age, the ship covered 66,000 ks and visited 35 countries and 90+ cities, including Shang­hai, Hong Kong, Manila, Bang­kok, Colombo, Bombay, Haifa, Venice, Gib­r­altar, Lisbon and Oslo. They were host­ed by local univ­ersities who org­an­ised lectures and receptions, and went on excur­sions to important sites eg Taj Mahal in India, pyramids in Egypt and Acropolis in Greece.

University students visiting the Taj Mahal India 

ABC.

America emerged from WWI rich but it hadn't yet establ­ished the global dominance that it later claimed. What's remar­k­able about 1926 was that Amer­ic­an pow­er was still being created so students were exploring and learning from British imperialism. They're were thinking about how the American empire was growing in the Ph­ilippines and comparing it to a British emp­ire in India. They visited the Dutch East Indies and went to French Alger­ia, asking what would American world dominance look like?

The global venture allowed them to meet world leaders en route. In It­aly, they met notable figures such as Pope Pius XI, prime minis­ter Ben­ito Mussolini and in Thailand, King Pra­jad­hipok of Siam. The organis­ers had written to foreign gov­ern­­ments and asked for their cooperation, leading to the connec­tions. The stud­ents had Am­erican prosp­er­ity and post-war internation­al­ism on their side; the world that was presented to these students was one shaped by American power in the interwar era.

Criticism increased as the ship sailed. The voyage was deemed an ed­uc­at­­ional failure then, because students were enjoying them­selves instead of attending lectures. And it was deemed a failure by the media, partly be­cause of reports of students par­tying antics when docked in ports. The press spread stories of misbehaviour, alcoholism and pregnancies! But had the educational goals really failed?

Dr Tamson Pietsch at UTS's Australian Centre for Public His­tory says many students on the floating university voyage desc­ribed it as one of the great turning points of their lives. The trip was desig­n­ed to allow stud­ents to learn beyond the classroom and the exp­eriment was created with a diplomatic pur­pose in mind for America after WWI. It was also fash­ion­ing the elite that would go on to have great influence in USA. At their 1976 reunion, the students described the voyage as the greatest educational experience of their lives.

Conclusion 

Were there study courses run by NYU before 1926? Had there been other experiments in educational travel? In 1926 an American univ­ers­ity went to sea and many people said they caused an internat­ional scandal and an educational failure. Yet this is now a significant part of student life, with one in four Australian students going abr­oad. I, Helen, person­ally spent 12 months studying in Israel, and my son went on a shorter course in Canada and USA. Both experiences were full of learning.

Read Dr Tamson Pietsch, Floating University: Experience, Empire and Politics of Knowledge, 2023.