Field-Based Learning

What Happens in the Field?

Field-based learning builds both technical competence and human responsibility. You will learn how to design interviews,
collect and interpret data in unfamiliar settings, and immerse yourself in the rhythms, languages, and values of local communities.
You are not just learning about places, but about the people who call them home.

Technical Skills

Field Data Collection & Sampling: Various sampling & field surveying methods for hands-on practice analysing data

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Interviews: Conducting semi-structured interviews with locals, deepening understanding of human-environment interactions

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Cartography (Mapping) & Geospatial Techniques: Using GIS software/tools to visualise and analyse spatial data

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Digital Documentation: Crafting informational and engaging video narratives of local experiences

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Research Design & Observation Skills: Student-directed designing of research projects and data analysis

Human Skills

Cross-Cultural Communication: Navigating diverse cultural, linguistic and social nuances/spaces/environments

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Teamwork & Collaboration: Working and communicating effectively in small groups

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Critical Thinking: Hands-on experience in dynamic, real-world settings

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Adaptability: Adjusting to unexpected changes/challenges amidst rapidly changing environments and situations

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Leadership: Taking initiative to guide projects and make real-time decisions

Field Investigations

Field Investigations (GE4220 & GE4221) are short, intensive, and immersive courses conducted during the semester, with the opportunity to conduct student-led fieldwork during recess week, in Kenya/Cambodia. Step beyond NUS’ lecture halls, and engage directly with the environments and communities you study.

Intensive Hands-On Learning

Gain real-world experience conducting research in dynamic field environments within a short span of time, while having creative freedom to explore how your skills can empower local communities.

Community Engagement

Students will be able to engage directly with the environments and communities they study, through village (kampong) homestay experiences and cultural exchanges.

Thematic Learning

Students will gain firsthand exposure into relevant topics relating to hydrological, socio-economic and political geographies relating to the Mekong and local contexts.

Where We Travel

Field Investigations takes students across Southeast Asia and its neighbouring regions, often within short travel from Singapore. Each site offers a distinct lens into the region’s interconnected challenges, exploring different geographical themes.

Thailand

Field Studies

Field Studies (GE3230A) is an extensive and fully immersive overseas course that brings geography to life over a 5-week period during the summer break in a South-east Asian region. You will live, learn, and work alongside your peers and community partners, applying classroom theory to real-world environments.

Full Immersion

Every part of the course takes place in the field. Students conduct research on-site, and experience geography as lived reality for more than a month, giving them the opportunity to hone their fieldwork skills with time.

Cultural Exchange

Students engage in local traditions, languages, and everyday life to gain a deeper understanding of people and place. Through these exchanges, students will gain greater awareness of relevant geographical themes that are characteristic of their locations.

Empowering Local Communities

Students have creative freedom to design and implement their own research, exploring innovative solutions and approaches in real-world field settings.

Where We Travel

Field Studies take students from neighbouring Southeast Asian region for Human Geography and to Kenya, East Africa, for Physical Geography. Each site offers distinct geographical physcial characteristics and social-lived experiences, encouraging students to explore how global issues intersect with local and grounded realities.

Cambodia

Programmes

Major in Geography

Cross-Disciplinary

Opportunities

Student Life

Making a Difference

Field-based learning at NUS Geography goes beyond mere observation or “voluntourism”. Students collaborate with local partners to contribute to ongoing community efforts, translating research into action that supports real people and real change. Each project is guided by respect, reciprocity, and the understanding that meaningful impact begins with listening.

Fireline Mapping

FS'24 (GE3230A)

Tonle Sap Ecotourism Microsite

FI'25 (GE4221)

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Voices from the Field

For many of our students, field-based learning becomes the most transformative part of their degree.

It challenges assumptions, builds resilience, and deepens empathy. Beyond data and reports, they take home lessons about humility, connection, and what it truly means to learn with communities, and not just about them.

Field learning is spontaneous not for the sake of it, but because it is about stepping into the nitty gritty of peoples’ lives and letting them teach you.

Brandon

FI 2025 (Cambodia)

Ultimately, at the heart of every field investigation lies human connection. Learning about people is important, but field-based experiences allow us to learn with people, building memories and friendships that will endure far beyond our time in Cambodia.

Melody

FI 2025 (Cambodia)

While we hope our work leaves something meaningful for the community, it is the connections we carry home with our friends, our hosts and our international buddies that personally endure.

Joel

FI 2025 (Cambodia)

To anyone considering Field Studies: don't walk, run! It might not seem like it fits into your curriculum, but it will shape your character in ways the classroom can’t. It's not just a module, it's a mirror. And if you let it, it'll stay with you long after the trip is over.

Zidny

FS 2025 (Thailand)

(My field investigation experiences) reaffirmed that successful fieldwork transcends mere data collection; it thrives on collaboration, empathy, and a genuine commitment to the communities we study.

Husna

FI 2024 (Cambodia)

How does this deepen my understanding?

Field-based learning allows you to see how theory meets practice.

You will apply geographical concepts to real-world settings. Field-based learning allows you to link spatial, social, and environmental issues directly to lived experience.

Why choose this over an internship?

Internships often focus on specific job tasks. Field-based learning immerses you in the process of inquiry itself.

You will learn how to ask better questions, think critically about context, and work with communities on-the-ground.

How does it prepare me for after graduation?

Employers value graduates who can adapt, collaborate, and navigate complex environments.

Field-based learning cultivates these skills, grounding your academic knowledge in real-world impact.

Field-Based Learning

What Happens in the Field?

Technical Skills

Human Skills

Field Investigations

Intensive Hands-On Learning

Community Engagement

Thematic Learning

Where We Travel

Thailand

Field Studies

Full Immersion

Cultural Exchange

Empowering Local Communities

Where We Travel

Cambodia

Programmes

Major in Geography

Cross-Disciplinary

Opportunities

Student Life

Making a Difference

Baan Mae Yang Min; Chiang Rai, Thailand

Fireline Mapping

Kampong Phluk; Siem Reap, Cambodia

Tonle Sap Ecotourism Microsite

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Voices from the Field

Brandon

Melody

Joel

Zidny

Husna

How does this deepen my understanding?

Why choose this over an internship?

How does it prepare me for after graduation?