International travel always brings challenges and hurdles, especially for an academic trip, so I thought I’d share the main steps and top to preparing for fieldwork for any students who be facing the same challenges in the future. Hopefully they’re helpful!

When it comes to interviews, the first step is the ethics application, which is compulsory for any research related to people. I started to prepare the three materials for ethics six months before my fieldwork, which included Ethics Form, Participants Information Sheet, and Consent form. It took me approximately two months to write and revise all documents based on discussions with my supervisors. I got the application approved two weeks after submission, but I’d advise students to be careful in this regard, as the autid time can vary for different documents and across different schools. I would strongly suggest discussing with your relevant supervisory teams ahead of time to plan the timetable of the fieldwork phase and checking with the School Ethics Committee if there is anything you are not sure about.

The last things you want is to suffer from any problems with your visa. Following the policy related to international students, if we are required to be outside the UK for course-related reasons (such as fieldwork/research overseas/data collection), we should request to study off-campus. Our student visa allows us to undertake off-campus study for a period of up to 6 months, but we first need to complete an off-campus Study Notification form, send it to our Schools, and then wait for the results from ISS. It took about one month to get my submission approved after my submission, so again I would recommend e-mailing Immigration Advice (International Students) in advance to get an idea how long the application will take and to plan your departure time from there.

When you’ve got your documentation together, it’s time to start thinking about equipment. If a videorecorder is needed for your fieldwork, it might be difficult to purchase one yourself, because a recorder that can provide high-quality recordings can be expensive. However, luckily for us, possible to ask for support from Sonic Arts Research Centre. I have borrowed a Zoom H2 recorder which is compact for traveling and can record in high fidelity and as a result I would definitely  recommend anyone else to contact SARC to ask if any available recording equipment are suitable for you and can be borrowed.

Speaking of expenses, it’s worth bearing in mind that several travel scholarships are available to us if we are considering finding some support. In general, we can contact our School first and check if any opportunities to get the travel funds. At the university level, Emily Sarah Montgomery Travel Scholarship and Sir Thomas Dixon Travel Scholarship are worth trying as well. You can find out more about these opportunities here.

Finally, I’ll share a few quick tips that I’ve discovered directly from my own experience. You can always ask supervisors and check with our School if there are any problems. Remember to do at least one backup for all electronic documents and hard copies you need. If the data are recorded on hard copy, never forget to scan them to the electronic version at the end of the day. If you need to travel by flight, I recommend keeping equipment (such as the recorder, hard drive, and computer) and materials with you as hand baggage rather than checked luggage, just in case the luggage is missing for a long international trip.

I hope this was helpful to someone. If so, safe travels and good luck!

Sijie