Research Papers

The author has taken undergraduate students on more than 25 field trips to Brussels over the past 10 years. A major motivation of for organizing field trips to accompany courses on European political and economic integration was the fact that one of the most memorable events of the author’s own undergraduate studies was precisely one such trip. Offering students a similar experience was as much a reason as the instructor's deeply held belief that field trips are of great academic value in this subject area. The author offers insights into the benefits of taking undergraduate students on ‘multi-disciplinary’ field trips to Brussels, offers ideas on which people to meet with, discusses preparation for meetings, reflects on the instructor's role during trips, and suggests some approaches to measuring, how to measure study trip outcomes. The author argues that study trips are a resource that must be tapped, as exposure to the Brussels environment enables students to experience the subject of study hands on, and therefore very differently from the way they learn about it in the classroom". Overall, study trips are highly beneficial to learning outcomes in courses dealing with issues the European Union and integration.