Geography BA (Hons)

You’ll get an introduction to academic skills for geography and environmental students in weekly tutorial sessions. You’ll cover essay writing, referencing, plagiarism, presentations, searching literature, note taking, and CV writing.

You’ll cover the basic concepts of systems analysis as applied to physical environmental systems, including concepts of equilibrium, thresholds and change. You’ll examine physical systems on a global scale, exploring the key components that drive environmental systems and natural hazards and how they are inter-related. You’ll then look at physical systems on a smaller scale to learn about the operation of physical environmental systems at the scale of human intervention.

You’ll collect and record data in the field, and learn how to identify appropriate ways of analysing it. Work both independently and as part of a team in the field, you’ll evaluate your own and one another’s contributions to group outcomes. You’ll also communicate and reflect on your findings via scientific reports and poster presentations.

You’ll cover the full range of techniques commonly applied by geographers, including cartography, remote sensing, field surveying, experimental design, laboratory use, social science research methods, and statistics. You’ll use key software in structured practicals, including Excel and Adobe Illustrator.

Through case studies, in-depth lectures and workshops, you’ll think about the nature and extent of human impact on the environment, and learn about the complexities of managing environmental, population and resource change at local and global levels.

You’ll consider the relationships between economic, political, social and cultural systems, both in general and in particular places. Explore spatial and temporal scale, as well as the social construction, evolution and distinctiveness of place. You’ll also think about the implications and problems of global processes for particular parts of the world.

Explore a city that has seen tremendous change over the last 30 years. You'll seek to understand urban change through the lenses of memory and memorialisation, grand urban redevelopment schemes and nation, creative city policy, gentrification and housing. You'll be introduced to and engage in a number of research and data collection exercises that will help develop your ability to undertake research in the field. You'll prepare a teaching activity for a group before they depart for Berlin and deliver this in the field, introducing you to skills in teamwork, and the ability to share skill and knowledge with others. In the careers element of the module, you'll explore potential career pathways for Geographers and develop the skills required to apply for jobs.

You'll plan the experimental approach for a scientific investigation, including ethics and risk assessment. Demonstrate proficiency in research skills, analyse and interpret scientific data, and demonstrate comprehension in molecular biology methods.

You'll undertake a minimum of 80 hours of placement work, voluntary work or relevant professional experience. You'll develop your work experience and enhance your CV ready for either a year-long placement or to apply for jobs. You'll gain organisation and communication skills, and experience relevant to your future career as you critically reflect on your learning experience and engagement with the Careers and Employability Service and the science Faculty Placements Office. Your engagement will also be further overseen by your tutor and module coordinator. 

You'll also have access to supporting workshops that are supplemented by work based learning hours.

Your 80 hours of work experience should take place between between the June period at the end of level 4 and before the end of the first teaching block at level 5, enabling you to complete assessments. You'll also need to secure relevant employment, volunteering or placement opportunity by the start of teaching block 1 during your second year.

You’ll examine social, cultural, political and economic development from both theoretical and policy perspectives. Through lectures, seminars and a museum visit, you’ll engage with key development processes and debates at a range of geographical scales, including the global, national, community, household and individual levels.

You’ll learn core theory underpinning GIS and RS, before applying the theory through the use of industry standard software. You’ll explore the capture, interpretation and analysis of geographical and environmental data from a variety of sources to explore 'real world' problems and challenges.

You’ll get familiar with the big issues and contemporary debates in education studies as well as the role and expectations of a teacher.

You’ll develops fundamental knowledge and skills that teachers require, as well as your capability to structure and critique a lesson plan.

You’ll get an introduction to fluvial geomorphology and a foundation in the discipline for developing a career in the environmental management sector. You’ll examine fluvial forms and processes, including flow dynamics and the mechanics of sediment erosion, transport and deposition. Take part in lab classes to demonstrate fundamental processes of open channel flow and sediment transport in alluvial rivers. You’ll also complete a project to show what you’ve learned about river channel processes in the context of an environmental management issue.

You’ll examine the complex and contested concept of Sustainable Development and the spectrum of views that surround it, as well as its roots, origins and core principles. You’ll explore the problems of achieving sustainable management of the environment, with reference to finite and renewable resources. You’ll also think about different approaches to sustainable management at different scales and in different geographical regions using empirical case studies.

You'll consider aspects of a city such as urban plannng, urban design, neighbourhoods, housing, town centres, community facilities, parks, access to greenspace, leisure and retail facilities and the role of these in life quality. You'll also consider how these 'urban goods' are unevenly distributed along lines of social class, race, gender, age, disability and sexuality.

You’ll focus on understanding volcanoes as systems, examining mantle-to-surface magmatic processes and how to identify key volcanic rocks and minerals. You’ll explore volcano-sedimentary sequences alongside geochemical and isotopic data to understand volcanic eruptive histories and magmatic evolution over time. Finally, you’ll also consider the plethora of volcanic hazards and risks alongside risk management strategies as well as other human-volcano interactions.

Through interactive lectures with academics, speakers and professionals, you'll discuss, debate and complete practical exercises exploring wildlife crime alongside your classmates.

You'll spend time examining wildlife crimes and the factors behind them, as well as environmental justice and sustainability.

You’ll develop your powers of critical analysis and evaluation, alongside your capacity for empathy and insight. Topics you’ll cover include contrasting theories and/or policies, reflection on your own personal experiences and how these relate to contemporary issues, and critical consideration of approaches to the study of children and young people.

Supported by your Academic Tutor, you'll select and manage information and competently undertake research tasks. You'll assess health and safety, the ethical considerations in pursuing independent research, and critically evaluate your findings against knowledge in available academic literature. You'll learn to discuss and communicate your key findings found from your research and write a dissertation in accordance with academic conventions.

You’ll examine the physical factors driving climate over history and the signatures of modern anthropogenic influence. Through climate modelling software, you'll investigate future warming scenarios and impacts regionally and globally. In a self-directed study, you'll assess vulnerabilities and solutions - evaluating possibilities for adaptation and mitigating climate change.

You’ll examine the development of core social theories and discourses that underpin the human and environmental management of these environments and the recreational activities that take place within them. You’ll then apply these concepts to a broad range of real-world issues, including land use planning, ecotourism, climate change and conservation, and the management of recreational and leisure activities.

You’ll learn about the dynamic complexity of cold environments through first-hand field experience, seeking to explain how physical and/or human processes at work in cold environments produce a range of environmental outcomes. This module also includes a series of lectures that will set your field experience in the wider context of environmental change in Arctic and/or planning of cold urban environments for environmental sustainability.

You'll cover ecological concepts and anthropogenic factors that impact species distributions and habitats. This will include discussing habitats of conservation interest, such as biodiversity hotspots, and conservation challenges such as human-wildlife conflicts. This module includes an integrated fieldtrip to a local area of conservation importance.

You’ll learn essential data analysis skills you’ll need for your future career, including how to produce a carbon audit to current Defra standards and how to present data to a range of stakeholders. You’ll also produce a consultancy-style report evaluating environmental impacts and potential savings, and explore the role of environmental impact assessment in the planning system.

You’ll become familiar with the main environmental pollutants, how they’re transferred within and between various media and how they interact with biota to create an environmental risk. You’ll explore the waste management hierarchy and the scientific and technical processes involved with waste management operations.

As well as exploring the theoretical approaches to gender and development thought, and especially feminist thought, you’ll also examine a series of axes of diversity in relation to women's and men's lives in the South. You’ll focus on the obstacles in achieving equality between men and women, and think about the theoretical and conceptual approaches to understanding and analysing gender issues in the global South.

You’ll consider these hazards from a number of angles, including how these are expressed upon landscapes, the nature of natural hazards through a range of spatial and temporal scales, and the effect these have on past and present human populations and civilisations. You’ll look at geophysical hazards like earthquakes, biological hazards such as pandemics, hydrological hazards like droughts, climatological hazards such as wildfires, and anthropological hazards like nuclear war.

You’ll get familiar with the big issues and contemporary debates in education studies as well as the role and expectations of a teacher.

You’ll develops fundamental knowledge and skills that teachers require, as well as your capability to structure and critique a lesson plan.

On this module, you’ll study Quaternary geology - the branch of geology that studies developments from 2.58 million years ago to the present day. You’ll investigate past environments and associated landform-sediment assemblages of relevance to engineering geologists, geologists and geographers, including glacial and periglacial ground models, fluvial sediments and interglacial environments.

Transport is central to transformations towards sustainable futures, and in reconciling competing environmental, economic and social policy goals. Transport is also central to understanding the changing spatial organisation of cities, towns and regions, social equity, industry and trade (national and international). Transportation planning and policy is therefore crucial to sustainable transformations. This module includes lectures, trips and help sessions to introduce and support student projects, with students choosing a project that fits with their individual interests. Students will critically assess underpinning concepts and debates through engaging with academic and policy literatures. There will be a number of guest speakers from the transport sector coming into class to support the teaching.

You’ll learn the fundamentals of atmospheric physics (radiation, hydrological cycle, pressure patterns) and how this creates weather patterns across the globe. Topics include extreme weather events, storm patterns, jet streams, atmospheric teleconnections and circulation. You’ll also look at spatial variation in climate, and examine controls of micro, local and regional climates, including urbanisation, vegetation, topographical and coastal influences.