A field school is a short term academic program – usually taking part during the summer – designed to provide practical training for college students on subjects previously learned theoretically in classrooms. Most field schools are four to eight weeks in length. They are directed by academic faculty and students are awarded academic credit units and letter grade for their participation. Programs are typically intensive and students and faculty work many hours each day together. They frequently involve learning through conducting primary research in the field. Faculty to student ratio in field schools is usually kept very low. They rarely exceed 1:20 and in many programs they are kept at 1:6. The result is the creation of a genuine team learning experience and authentic mentoring of students. Field schools are experiential programs where students learn primarily by doing. Lectures, especially during the evenings, are mainstay for many field schools.
Some disciplines require field school participation as a condition for graduating with a BA or BS degree. Archaeology, Geology and Paleontology are typically such disciplines although specific requirements differ from one university to the next. Graduate students, especially those early in their graduate academic careers, may participate in field schools. High school students or individuals associated with universities rarely attend as these are seen as highly academic training programs.
Data about field school attendance is not easily available (Boytner 2012; Mytum 2011). The Institute for International Education – the organization that collects data about US students studying abroad through its annual Open Doors Report – does not designate students participating in field schools, or even research-based programs, as a category in its analysis. It is unknown how many students participate in field school activities annually, whether within or outside the US.
Many field schools are run through universities, training their own students. In recent years, field schools are emerging as significant revenue generating programs and universities are trying to attract students outside of those matriculating in their institution and charge hefty fees. The economic crisis of 2008 resulted with the removal of institutional subsidies for many field schools in the US and many field schools are now charging the full costs of the program. Universities rarely monitor the quality of the field schools they offer as these are off campus, typically small in scale and effective monitoring requires significant investment of resources. The result is that university based field schools are effectively unmonitored with significant gaps in quality.
In recent decades, independent and highly specialized academic organizations that run field schools independent of universities emerged. Such organizations are dedicated operators of research-based field schools and use economies of scale to produce quality programs. Students from any university may apply to such programs. The School for Field Studies in ecology, Sea Semester in marine biology and the Institute for Field Research in archaeology are examples of such high end organizations.
Disciplines that typically require, or strongly encourage students to participate in a field school as part of the requirement for graduation includes:
- Archaeology
- Geology
- Paleontology
- Environmental Studies
- Primatology
- Marine Biology
- Anthropology
- Geography
In the US, an increasing number of students prefer to attend field schools abroad. Combining travel, research and intensive learning environments is appealing to students who seek to maximize the use of their time and resources. However, large number of students within the US and most students in countries elsewhere in the world attend field schools in relative proximity to their home campuses.
As universities offer increasing number of online classes and as the Massive open online course (MOOC’s) are becoming progressively popular, the need for an intensive, time-condensed yet quality field training programs surge. Universities are moving to outsource such activities as they wish to minimized investment and exposure and are turning to organizations that can both guarantee quality of education and assume liability exposure.