Special Report LAST UPDATE July 1, 2010
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June 7, 2010 Global University – The world is our classroom
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Students Imura Keisuke (left) and Yamamoto Haruka (right) take notes as they listen to a lecture.
Peace Boat's Global University (GU) is one of the world's most dynamic learning environments. Not only do students live for more than 100 days on a ship as it travels around the world, but they leave the floating city 22 times for excursions into countries scattered across five continents. The GU Programme began 10 years ago as an intensive course, teaching Peace Boat participants about world issues. It was last run on the 60th voyage, and a new curriculum has been developed during the hiatus, offering greater opportunities to those enrolled in the programme. At traditional universities, students learn about far away places without ever visiting them or gaining a first-hand understanding of the topics involved. GU is unique because it gives students the opportunity to go to these places and witness issues up-close.
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The head of a Palestinian family, Salman Sultan (centre), shares his life story with the GU students.
The theme of the 69th Voyage is creating global sustainability and designing the world of 100 years from now. GU students are learning about three topics closely related to this theme. During the first unit they learnt about peace and conflict, and in particular about creating a balanced future within the Middle East. Most of the students are aged in their twenties, with some in their thirties and just one aged in her forties. Together they participated in an exposure tour, where they learnt more about conflict in the Middle East by spending several nights in a Palestinian refugee camp near Jordan's capital Amman. Here they lived with refugees who were displaced from their homeland during the 1948 war between Israelis and Palestinians.
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Emura Miki discusses her experience in the refugee camp with other Peace Boat participants, saying it has changed her understanding of issues in the Middle East.
Global University Coordinator Cho Misu says the exposure tours are one of the best ways to learn about the lives of others. "If you get all of your information from the television, newspaper or the internet, then it is very easy to lose the human contact and to forget that these are actually people who are eating, talking and sleeping in the same way that you are." Ms Cho says information gained through the media can lack substance because it is just a type of knowledge without any personal attachment. "By going to meet with these refugees in person, GU students aren't just going to watch them and examine how their life is from the outside," she says. "Instead they are actually going to be in a position where they can interact with them and make the most of what they have learnt about the overall situation as part of their studies onboard Peace Boat."
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Students visit an offshore windfarm in Copenhagen where they learn about sustainable energy production.
GU students are now learning about the environment and sustainable ways of living during their second unit of study. They will visit several ports in Scandinavia as the 69th Voyage travels through northern Europe. This region is a hotbed for developing and implementing renewable energy practices. At Copenhagen in Denmark, students participated in a programme including a visit to a experimental building designed to be self-sufficient through generating its own electricity, a wind farm, and meeting with local environmental activists. Ms Cho says visiting these countries will have a strong impact on the students. "Tours like this make you realise that you are connected to all global problems, that you are not just watching them from the outside, but that you are in the middle of them."
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GU students produced postcards from photos they took in the refugee camp, sold onboard to raise money to support Palestinians.
Many of the students in Global University are have an interest in social studies as well as working for a humanitarian organisation. They learn with the numerous guest educators who come onboard the 69th Voyage, such as environmental activist Tanaka Yu, and Achin Vanaik, a professor of international relations. With these guests, the GU students discuss problems that the world is facing and what they can do to help. The voyage changes their perspective by introducing them to different cultures as well as issues that they would not have normally had contact with in their daily lives. During their third unit, students will learn about globalisation and social disparity as the 69th Voyage travels to Latin America. "This is a chance to see new things with our own eyes and feel them with our hearts," Ms Cho says.