"Floating University" in 1926

For those who advocate study abroad experiences as an important enrichment for colleges students, the 1926 NYU "Floating University" is an early precursor of the opportunities and challenges such experiences offer. The study tour was organized by James Lough for 500 students, and the book about the experience introduces age-old questions related to student conduct, the fusion of experience and learning, and legitimacy of academic credit.

Author Tamson Pietsch reflected in her interview about the book, "...historian and educationalist William Hoffa has pointed out, the relationship of 'study abroad' to academic credits remains a problematic one for U.S. universities. No matter how organized or regulated it is, international education is founded on the recognition that personal experiences matter. In traveling abroad, students learn something about the world that they wouldn't learn if they stayed home. This recognition of the importance of experience fundamentally challenges the university's claim to be the primary authorizer of knowledge about the world - as it well should."