Beyond the Classroom: International Field Trips in Postgraduate Politics and International Relations Education

• Published date: 01 June 2026
• Author: Jamie Pow,Andrew Thomson,Viviane Gravey
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70040
• Section: Research Article

Contemporary European Politics

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Beyond the Classroom: International Field Trips in

Postgraduate Politics and International Relations

Education

Jamie Pow | Andrew Thomson | Viviane Gravey

Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK

Correspondence: Andrew Thomson (a.f.thomson@qub.ac.uk)

Received: 9 November 2025 | Revised: 16 March 2026 | Accepted: 18 April 2026

Funding: Queen's University Belfast

ABSTRACT

International field trips are typically designed to meet multiple objectives. First, they serve a pedagogical value: as a form of

active and experiential learning, they enhance learning and provide students with the opportunity to connect concepts and

theories to real‐world practice. Second, they serve a cohort‐building purpose: by bringing students together with their peers over

a multi‐day period, they are likely to strengthen their sense of community within their programme and, in turn, enhance their

overall student experience. Third, field trips can shape professional development: by giving students the opportunity to meet

with a variety of practitioners in professional settings, they may get a clearer sense, or fresh ideas, about how (and where) they

may use their academic experience beyond graduation and enhance the attainment of transferable professional skills. Using

survey data collected before and after postgraduate study trips to Brussels, this paper investigates the extent to which academic

field trips in politics and international relations (IRs) meet their intended objectives. The study highlights the importance of

international study trips and how they may be most effectively designed.

1 | Introduction

International field trips are a well‐established and often‐

assessed pedagogical tool in natural sciences disciplines and

geography curriculums, but comparatively less assessed is

their impact on learning in the social sciences, and within

postgraduate programmes in politics and international rela-

tions (IR) in particular (Huggins 2024; Duchatelet et al. 2020).

The examination of the pedagogical value of experiential

learning in politics and IR (Lamy 2007; Jonathan and

Laik 2019) has typically focused on simulations, role‐play ex-

ercises, or problem‐based learning scenarios designed to

model political or diplomatic processes in classroom settings

(see, e.g., Lantis 1998; Kille 2002; Boyer et al. 2006; Asal

et al. 2014; Schnurr et al. 2014; Kitchen 2022). Studies of field

trips in politics and IR appear to focus more closely on virtual

field trips, which do not necessitate moving students from the

classroom environment (Box‐Steffensmeier et al. 2000; Kenna

and Potter 2018; Ostojski 2026).

Pedagogical research on field trips in the natural sciences has

documented advantages of field trips in terms of experiential,

affective and professional developmental benefits (see, e.g.,

Bruening et al. 2002; Krakowka 2012; Behrendt and

Franklin 2014; Jones and Washko 2022). This article asks

whether those benefits are also measurable in politics and IR

field trips (which, despite the dearth in pedagogical literature,

are still frequently used, at least in European political and IR

higher education), and if so, how can field trips become more

(economically) sustainable and reach more students? These

questions are especially urgent in the context of growing

financial pressures across UK and European higher education,

where field trips are increasingly at risk of underfunding or

being cut altogether (Bolton and Lewis 2025). Such risks may be

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided

the original work is properly cited.

© 2026 The Author(s). Contemporary European Politics published by University Association of Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

1 of 10 Contemporary European Politics, 2026; 4:e70040

https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70040