Dozens of campuses around the world will train you in the fundamentals of aerospace engineering, and space-related activities find a niche in practically every area of academic work, from the humanities to medicine. But one institution will extend a student's horizons in ways that no other place can match.

The International Space University was a bold concept when it made its debut in the late nineteen eighties. Now, with more than a decade of evolution behind it, ISU has grown from a nomadic institution that conducted short summer sessions in various places to an academy with its own dedicated campus in Strasbourg, France. ISU continues to attract dozens of students every year for its original style of summer sessions, through to its year-long Master of Space Studies program.

ISU differs from the normal academic approach of gradually training students to be specialists in niche areas. Instead, this academy places a greater emphasis on broadening students' exposure to a wide range of disciplines.

"An engineer will become aware of the impact of space law and policy, scientific requirements, finance and economics on a project," explained ISU spokeswoman Caroline Vignard.

This appreciation of the interconnectedness of so many disciplines in the space arena is sometimes missed by people who work in the space industry, but never interact with teams outside their area of interest.

The interdisciplinary approach is one of ISU's greatest distinctions, but spreading a course so broadly can also produce shallow coverage. Students have observed that teaching is sometimes pitched to the lowest level of expertise in a class, which could consist of law graduates rubbing shoulders with astronomers.

"The breadth of the curriculum is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness", remarked Dr Andrew Barton, an Australian aerospace engineer who completed the Masters program.

"It allows ISU to attract students and lecturers from a wider pool but leaves the feeling that nothing was covered in enough detail to be useful."

Barton claims that the generality of teaching was especially frustrating to students with technical backgrounds, but still feels that the approach will help managers who will need a broad understanding of the space industry.

About three quarters of Barton's classmates had technical qualifications, while the rest had backgrounds ranging from linguistics to law. Roughly 45 students were enrolled in his year.

ISU is broad from more than just an academic perspective. Faculty boast of the "Three Is" as fundamentals to ISU education: Interdisciplinary, International and Intercultural. The interdisciplinary nature of ISU lies at the core of its curriculum, but the international and intercultural aspects emerge through various channels.

As many as 30 different nationalities could be represented at any ISU course.

"The students have to learn to live and work together," observes Vignard. "To work productively in such an international team, they need to learn how to all move towards a common goal, drawing on their individual resources and differences as a factor of enrichment rather than of dissention."

Although ISU courses are taught in English, students are required to have a certain level of fluency in another language.

Such goals are often stated by various organisations but not always achieved in practice. Yet ISU seems to be fairly successful in bridging international gaps, and Andrew Barton feels that this was achieved during his course.

But most students at ISU still come from industrially developed nations, and the English language tends to dominate more than just lectures. Barton said that his class was referred to as an "English speaking bubble" in Strasbourg.

The ISU Masters program begins with a set of three introductory modules that take students through the interdisciplinary aspects of space projects. A typical day would see a student experience three or four morning lectures. In the afternoon, students could have further lectures, or work on team projects, search for work or do more study on areas of personal interest.

The University is rather small at the present, with just only four full-time and six part-time faculty members. Consequently, it makes heavy use of external lecturers who visit the campus for a few days.

Barton felt that this lack of a large internal faculty compromised some of the teaching, but "hearing a range of space experts from around the world gave many benefits, including networking opportunities and improved industry awareness."

For many students, the fourth module of their ISS degree is the major attraction. Students receive work placements in space-related organisations, including NASA.

This work experience phase lasts about three months, and can see students contributing to actual missions. The students also usually undertake extracurricular trips to space venues in places like Moscow and Cannes.

The final module of the course is a team project, where several students pool their skills to develop a plan for a space-related venture. ISS projects have included designing missions to Mars and asteroid mining, and Barton found himself involved in a project to defend Earth against a strike from an asteroid.

The result was a range of countermeasures that included protecting people in underground shelters and deflecting very large asteroids with mass drivers.

The team project is more than a multifaceted task assignment. Students are also expected to implement their own organisational structure to manage themselves.

"This meant the entire team was thrown into the same boat and forced to choose the direction to row", explained Andrew Barton. "Luckily, nobody fell overboard, but there were a few close calls."

Barton observed that frustrations over the direction of a project could drive some students to angry outbursts, when pet ideas were sometimes rejected. Yet such incidents are fairly common in any workplace. He felt that more emphasis should be placed on actively coaching students in management skills before they begin their projects.

Outside of regular course activities, students still found time to blow off steam. "The most common events were soccer games and house parties, both of which generally attracted a large fraction of the class. Some students set about creating interest groups but the busy schedule didn't allow for any well-organised clubs."

Living in Strasbourg provoked one major form of culture shock for this Australian student. It was cold! "The temperature during December and January was frequently below zero (Celcius) and the daylight hours are shorter than anything experienced in temperate Australia."

On some days, with his days spent indoors at lectures and assignments, Barton would never see the sun. "Class morale was also at a low in the lead-up to Christmas as homesickness took hold." But Barton generally enjoyed the experience of living in France. "It's worth it, even if only for the cheese and wine."

For many students, the final objective of an ISU degree is career advancement, but experiences with employment are mixed. Some are able to gain their first job in the aerospace industry, others feel ready for promotion, while some are simply unable to find work in the space arena.

The somewhat depressed state of the aerospace industry, where consolidations and job cuts are a regular event, seems to be a major contributing factor.

For an academy with relatively modest resources but rather bold aspirations, it is understandable that ISU does not fulfil every expectation from its diverse range of students. "ISU is claiming to be too many different things, so further effort is needed in shaping and delivering the curriculum", said Barton.

Nevertheless, he feels that his own expectations were generally met. "It was not looking purely for an education but the whole ISU experience. ISU is definitely something where you get out what you put in, and those who are willing to put in a lot of effort might be pleasantly surprised by the benefits they get out."

Dr Morris Jones is a Sydney-based journalist and consultant. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email.

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