📖Program Curriculum
Course outline
The degree allows you to study both human and physical geography, although you can choose to specialise in one of these areas from the second year.
You typically have six to eight lectures each week (with associated reading), as well as practicals, laboratory work and field classes. In addition, you normally have three supervisions a fortnight at which you discuss a topic beyond the material given at lectures, usually based on reading, essay writing, preparation of presentations or answering data response questions.
Year 1 (Part IA)
You’re introduced to key themes and issues by studying two core papers, which have recently been:
People, Place and the Politics of Difference – topics are varied, but may include globalisation; cultural geography; sustainable development; historical geography; urbanisation; geopolitics; uneven economies and inequality; health and disease
Environmental Processes and Change – topics are varied but may include tectonics and volcanism; coastal processes; glacial processes; Quaternary climate change; biogeography; atmosphere and climate
For each paper, you are assessed at the end of the year.
You will also attend a range of lectures and lab classes (both physical and computer-based) introducing you to geographical research skills across the subject. These are assessed by means of coursework.
Year 2 (Part IB)
All students take a compulsory paper, Living with Global Change, which examines key concepts and current issues in geography, usually based around the theme of geographical risk (the exact focus varies from year to year).
In addition, you can begin to specialise and select three papers from a choice of six. The list below give examples of the choice that may be offered, but these can change from year to year:
Inequality
Development Theories, Policies and Practices
Citizenship, Cities and Civil Society
Glacial Processes
Biogeography
Quaternary Climates and Environments
You will also undertake project work involving field, lab and computer skills and techniques. Projects vary according to which you papers you choose, but everyone takes a course in quantitative methods.
You will also take part in field classes of five to eight days; these trips usually include a mix of different types of geography and help you to develop knowledge and skills for your dissertation.
Assessment in the second year is based on a mix of written examinations for the four papers, and submission of a portfolio of coursework.
Year 3 (Part II)
You can choose either to specialise further or maintain a balance across the subject as a whole. You select four papers from a choice of 12. Papers on offer vary each year but recent examples include:
Global Urbanism
Work and Employment
Political Ecology
Biogeography
Glaciology
Postcolonialism and Decoloniality
Geographies of the Arctic
Environmental Knowledges
Volcanology
Legal Geographies
Geographies of Food and Power
Demographic Continuity and Change
Life within Limits
These papers are assessed by either written examination or a combination of written examination and coursework, which typically takes the form of an extended essay, academic report or poster presentation.
You also submit a dissertation of 10,000 words on a topic of your choice. Planning for this starts in the second year. Data are usually collected in the summer between your second and third years, with analysis during the third year.
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