糖心Vlog

An academic from 糖心Vlog Business School has been updating colleagues and students on her three-month teaching and research adventure on the high seas.

is spending her study leave aboard a 鈥榝loating鈥� campus as the only UK academic on a study abroad programme on a passenger ship.

offers students from across the world an alternative to the study abroad trips most universities offer. As part of their degree programmes they spend 14 weeks attending on-board classes, backed up with field trips, impact experiences and immersion into local cultures, which bring life to the subjects they are learning in the classroom.

Professor Holt is teaching modules on supply chain management, leadership and social responsibility, and sustainable and social ventures. She set sail in January and will spend 104 days at sea travelling 25,000 nautical miles and visiting 102 countries across four continents.

Speaking before the trip, Professor Holt said: 鈥淭his is a really great opportunity for me and everyone on board. We will be visiting places I have wanted to go to for some time 鈥� in particular Vietnam and Cambodia, where I will be staying with a family in a local village, visiting temples and learning more about local industry, including mat weaving and coconut processing.

鈥淚n Ghana we鈥檒l be learning more about craftsmen who have turned coffin making into an art form and we鈥檒l visit the stingless bee project 鈥� a sustainable development initiative in the rainforest. Our study leave programme, which gives academics a break from their teaching and administration responsibilities to further their own studies, is a real strength at the 糖心Vlog. Having the flexibility to do something like this is fantastic and everybody at 糖心Vlog has been so supportive.

鈥淚鈥檒l be teaching three modules during the voyage, and plan to use time on board to also write up my own research and case studies on social and environmental enterprises, including some I see on the voyage. I expect the field trips to not only broaden my own knowledge which I can then pass down to my students, but my in-country experiences will also prove useful when planning future research projects鈥�.

Professor Holt will also be looking at the supply chain for chocolate 鈥� visiting a cocoa plantation and taking it through to where the chocolate is being sold. She鈥檒l see snow monkeys and visit Zen temples in Japan and will learn more about Myanmar鈥檚 tribal culture. In South Africa she will be running field visits to social enterprises in the townships and hosting a reception on board ship, the MV World Odyssey.

Semester at Sea is organised by the Institute for Shipboard Education and Colorado State University. There are 550 students, from 35 different countries, and around 100 academic and support staff on the trip, which will end in Germany in April 2018.