Aims

A1. To promote students understanding of the managerial and regulation related elements that influence chartering operations in shipping. Students will also learn key terminology and conventions that will enable them to orientate themselves in the shipping environment, improving the employability and employment skills.
A2. To provide students with knowledge of charter parties as a key strategic element to shipping operations.
A3. To show students the effects of particular business issues (e.g. demurrage and laytime) and how these are calculated and administered.
A4. To provide students with knowledge of the documentation that accompanies commercial shipping and its role. Such knowledge is essential for any person operating in the shipping industry.

Outline Of Syllabus

• Identification of shipping practitioners (for example, brokers, freight forwarders, ship agents, etc) and how they interact to facilitate shipping.
• Contractual relationships between practitioners and the significance of specific forms and documents within their business interactions (e.g. the Hague Visby rules, letter of credit).
• Shipping documentation and its role in facilitating shipping movements. Specific case studies will be presented and discussed in class, concerning: import and export activities, customs, immigration, brokering and freight forwarding.
• Structure and form of common charter parties for dry bulk and tanker shipping.
• Meaning of the common clauses found in these charter parties and implications for risk management.
• Meaning of common terms and clauses (e.g. Incoterms) found in charter parties.
• Calculation of laytime and demurrage.
• Port codes and conventions.
• Complications in charter parties and their administration.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Teaching will be centred around a structure of five lectures and 4 practical learning activities focused on group work on relevant case studies. Lectures will be supported by the professional teaching materials published by the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, being the accrediting body to which students will be orientated when they leave. Practical learning activities will be based on official legal forms and documentation related to specific business case studies. By keying into this material, the passage of students towards professional status after graduation will be shortened.
In addition to lectures, a simulation game provided to the students will be used to let the students compete in a simulated business environment, checking their knowledge and their performance against the market and against their own peers.

Lectures are designed to promote basic knowledge on charter parties and regulation that can improve performance in shipping operations (IKO1-6).
Group work and simulation activities will help students to test themselves, promoting collaborative behaviours and testing their increased skills and professional knowledge (ISO1-4). Practical learning activities will also allow students to further investigate acquired knowledge in terms of understanding charter parties and linking theory to practice.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Assessment is designed to allow student to test the achieved learning outcomes at both knowledge (e.g. Final Exam) and skill (e.g. group exercise) levels. The coursework will allow student to show their capability to professionally develop a report solving a specific business case.
Eventually, both the group work and the written coursework provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their written communication skills (at professional level), research-related skills, IT skills and depth of understanding (and associated cognitive skills) of the overall business environment. The simulation exercise will help students to put the acquired knowledge into practice.