Study Trips

Study trips are a foundational component of the AUP graduate curriculum, taking students out of the classroom to cement learned theory in professional contexts across Paris and further afield. These experiential learning experiences, led by our expert faculty, see students visiting destinations around the world – from India, Morocco and Cambodia to Ghana, Turkey and Iceland – preparing them to navigate international careers while building towards mastery of their chosen subject.

Field experience exposes participants to new perspectives on students’ preferred topics and develops diplomacy, sensitivity and professionalism. Each study trip has key learning goals that are closely tied to a program’s curriculum and deepen students’ understanding of their specialism by immersing them in relevant professional contexts.

Work with Professionals Across the Globe

Our curriculum prepares students to thrive in deeply international work environments through continuous immersion in cross-border professional settings, where one can converse, exchange and work with world-leading experts. Be it branding consultants in Iceland, NGO leaders in India or crisis response officers in France, graduate study trips put students in direct contact with exciting professionals at the top of their fields who are finding innovative new approaches to how we cooperate, collaborate and communicate across borders, languages and cultures.

The Ecole de Guerre Practicum really did change my life. I was able to work directly with French war officers to explain why human rights are so important.

– Jackson Vann G’22, MSc in Human Rights and Data Science

Spotlight: Understanding Management & Politics

Ghana is in the process of a successful transition to democracy. Visit political institutions and engage in an introduction to
the history of the country.

Speak Anyone’s Language

AUP graduate students learn cultural translation. Cultural translators are fast on their feet in international environments and are well-equipped to adapt to unknown contexts. In becoming cultural translators, students learn to appreciate multiple perspectives, harmonizing sometimes conflicting viewpoints into cooperative action. These skills are vital to understanding and thriving in cross-border contexts, whether students are observing human rights abuse trials in The Hague or conducting development communications work in Auroville, India.

Cultural Programs Fall '24

Iceland: Place Branding

Experience and explore Iceland’s unique approach to promoting environmental and cultural sustainability. This trip allows you to explore and understand how place promoters in the country have used place branding to develop a compelling national story.

Exploring Fez: Architecture, Culture, and Communication

While discovering Islamic architecture and design and their roles in Fez's public identity, you will also be examining the urban renewal and communications that taking place in a heritage city in a developing country.

India: Sustainable Development

One of AUP’s flagship Cultural Program study trips, the practicum pairs an academic understanding of sustainable development with hands-on experience working with NGOs and sustainable enterprises in an eco-community located in the Tamil Nadu region of southeast India.

Stockholm: AUP Alumni in Action

Engage in meetings with major corporations in Stockholm who have revolutionized global digital branding like Spotify and H&M. The Nordic capital provided a living case study, offering real-world examples of the impact of branding on a city’s economic landscape.

Istanbul: Byzantine and Ottoman Empires to Modern-Day Turkey

Engage with and reflect upon how a historical mix of identities and languages continues to shape the politics and culture of modern-day Turkey, while also enjoying a wide range of cultural activities.

Partner organisation gives a presentation

Netherlands: Navigating Climate Change

An intensive study trip offering an in-depth overview of sustainability management by businesses, NGOs, and public policy bodies in the Netherlands to climate change and other human impacts on the environment.

Biella: Management Ethics and Theory

After an economic crisis in the 1990s, Biella transitioned to become a cluster area for sustainable fashion. This graduate study trip involves a client-focused project that touches on marketing, finance, sustainability, ethics, fashion management, and themes of environment and complexity.

Be at Home in the World

Study trips allow students to collaborate on a wide variety of projects, from research tasks to crisis simulations and professional workshops. Students get to know faculty and peers through working alongside them. Often from drastically different backgrounds, cultures and fields, these partners help students appreciate varied perspectives and develop collective innovations and collaborative ways of working, while also feeling part of a global community.

Spotlight: London

Professional visits in the fields of public relations, new media, branding and advertising in the British capital.

Bonds for Life

Experiencing immersion in another culture is a uniquely transformative experience that brings participants closer together. Students find that field studies solidify the bonds between peers as they get to know each other on a more personal level outside of a classroom setting. Faculty members say that the additional face-time with students builds invaluable academic – and, later, professional – connections, as they develop a deeper understanding of the subject by learning alongside those they teach. This bonding experience is one of the main reasons why alumni often cite study trips as among their most memorable AUP experiences.

Hear One Student's Experience

It was clear from the start that the Sustainable Development Practicum would be a life-changing experience for me.

– Lamis Aljasem G’16, MA in Global Communications