Fieldwork in Chinese undergraduate geography programs: status and challenges

Fieldwork remains a cornerstone of undergraduate geography education, but the number of fieldwork programs in many geography departments around the world has been declining. This paper examines the presence of fieldwork planning, sites, content, assessment, and management in 31 Chinese sample universities through mixed methods. The results indicate that although fieldwork is an integral component in Chinese undergraduate geography programs, many challenges in effectively conducting it remain to be eliminated. Human geography is scarce and imbalanced in fieldwork content, which is infrequent and occasional. There is limited financial support, university-enterprise cooperation, and integration of assessment with fieldworkers’ experience in emotional geographies. The status of fieldwork in Chinese undergraduate geography programs needs to be cemented through faculties and administrators of geography departments in normal universities valuing its role and striving for full favour.