
Fieldwork forms an integral part of the Cambridge Geography experience.
I’ve always been a very ‘outdoorsy’ and adventurous person, and look for any excuse to get out and explore the amazing world we live in! For me, Geography gives me that opportunity, which is why I chose to study it at university. I just love being able to understand the landscape and scenery around me, and why it looks in the way that it does, and Geography enables me to do that. — Keziah, second year.
Residential and multi-day field classes
Every second year student attends either a residential or multi-day field class. These are seen as an essential building block for undergraduate final year dissertation research, both in terms of inspiring students in their choice of topics, and in teaching specific field research skills.
Field class teaching objectives and focus are diverse, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, reaching from the physical sciences through the biological sciences to the social sciences and humanities. The fieldtrips aim to provide you with skills for collecting data using appropriate techniques, in a safe manner, while considering the impact of investigations on the environment and stakeholders.
Different trips run in different years. Recent destinations have included Ireland and Morocco as well as the UK. We take seriously the environmental impact of fieldwork and its carbon footprint. We therefore do not run fieldtrips to long-haul destinations and seek to offer several UK based fieldtrips. We are aiming to reduce the carbon impact of our fieldtrips over time.
Our multi-day field classes are designed to combine field work away from Cambridge with lab work back in Cambridge. This provides a chance for students to learn more advanced techniques that those taught in other areas of the course.