BA Geography - 2025 entry

Field trip themes:

•   Community action on climate change
•   Sustainable heritage and tourism
•   Demographic change and migration
•   Spatialities of migration
•   Migration and sustainability
•   Bioregional economies and enterprise
•   Food geographies
•   Community food projects
•   Sustainable food networks and innovation
•   Knowledge coproduction for environmental governance
•   Multi-level governance for environmental policy making

Berlin

Berlin has been central to many of the key political and urban issues of the last 100 years: at the heart of the turmoil during the rise of fascism; as the symbolic centre of the Cold War; and as a city that exemplifies many of the key urban issues of the 21st century. Through a series of activities in various sites, both well-known (e.g. the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, the Jewish Museum) and lesser-known (e.g. Stolpersteine memorials, the neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg), and working in small groups with guidance and advice from academic staff, this trip equips you with the intellectual resources to undertake your own explorations and analysis of this fascinating city.

Itinerary:

Freiburg and the Black Forest

The Environmental Futures Field Course is an interdisciplinary module centred on enabling you to engage critically and experientially with a range of contemporary debates on sustainable futures and landscape transformations within the context of The Climate Emergency. This learning focus is extended through a commitment to using low carbon travel (whole module group rail travel) to visit the city and its surrounding areas. Through experiencing a diverse range of field sites, you will learn how physical and social scientists are helping to reimagine the ways we engage with urban and rural spaces to engender positive environmental and social transformations.

Field trip themes:

• Behaviour change and personal mobility
• Sustainable cities
• Coexistence with wildlife

Skaftafell, Iceland

The Iceland field course provides an opportunity for you to apply and develop your physical geography research skills in a real-world environment. Iceland’s position at 60 degrees North on the Mid Atlantic Ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean has led to the development of a spectacular landscape which records contemporary and ongoing glacial, volcanic and fluvial processes. The field trip focuses on the physical processes that have shaped the dramatic landscape of Iceland, and how knowledge of these processes can help us better understand changes in regional climate. With ice caps and glaciers as sensitive indicators of climate, Iceland presents a unique environment in which to study glacier geomorphology and climate change over the past 150 years.

During the trip we will be based at a hotel located in the world-famous Vatnajökull National Park. The field course involves a series of site visits and field lectures in Iceland, focusing on observing and understanding these processes at field sites in the southeast of Iceland at the edge of the Vatnajökull Ice Cap. Using a combination of GIS and field-based techniques you will conduct a research project working in small groups in a glacier foreland studying:

•   Glaciers as climate indicators
•   Landscape evolution
•   Relative dating techniques
•   Quantifying rates of environmental change

As well as some great physical geography such as Thingvellir, Gulfoss and Geysir, there may be a chance to see the northern lights, participate in a glacier walk, and relax in a geothermal pool.

_{*Please note, some optional/alternative field courses may incur additional costs. Find out more in the Fees section.}

Learning technology and facilities

In lectures we encourage you to contribute through the use of smartphone interactive technology to ask questions or submit feedback. Where applicable to your module choices, all students have access to well-equipped laboratories and the latest geographical information systems (GIS), mapping statistics and coding software.

We have a virtual learning environment, where the details of all modules are stored in an easily navigable website. Here you can access detailed information about learning outcomes, and interact through discussion forums, blogging and virtual field trips. The virtual field trips integrate video and audio data, maps, datasets, documents and published research to help you develop field work and analytical skills that are firmly grounded in the real world.

Assessment

Your progress is monitored through tutorial work and practical assessments. Your final degree mark is based on approximately 50 per cent exam-based and 50 per cent coursework-based assessments. This is, however, dependent on your module choices where some optional modules might be 100% coursework for example. You can therefore pick modules by topic but also based on what you think will best allow you to demonstrate your learning. In your final year you will undertake a dissertation, which is an independent research project on the topic that excites you most.

You must pass your modules in the first year in order to progress, but your marks in this year do not influence your final degree classification.

Academic support

We are committed to providing you with a supportive learning environment in which you can build confidence and mastery of Geography.

You will have a personal and academic tutor who is available for advice and support throughout your studies and to support the transition to university-level learning. You will also be represented through Student-Staff Liaison Committees and have regular opportunities to feedback on your course and modules.

Optional modules outside of this course

Each year, if you have optional modules available, you can take up to 30 credits in a subject outside of your course. This can increase your employability and widen your intellectual horizons.

Proficiency in a second subject

If you complete 60 credits of modules in one of the subjects below, you may have the words 'with proficiency in [e.g. Social Data Science]' added to your degree title when you graduate.

• A Foreign Language
• Data Science
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation
• Law (Penryn Campus only)
• Leadership
• Management
• Social Data Science

Find out more about proficiency options

Careers services

We have a dedicated, award-winning Careers Service ensuring you have access to careers advisors, mentors and the tools you need to succeed in finding employment in your chosen field on graduation. We offer the Exeter Award and the Exeter Leaders Award which include employability-related workshops, skills events, volunteering and employment which will contribute to your career decision-making skills and success in the employment market.

The University of Exeter has an excellent reputation with graduate recruiters and our students and graduates compete very successfully in the employment market. Whatever path you wish to follow, we’re here to help and support you with all your career and employability needs.

Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Ambassador Scheme

You will have the opportunity to apply for the RGS Ambassador Scheme. The scheme recruits, trains and supports geographers currently at university and graduate geographers from the workplace to act as ambassadors for geography in the classroom. Ambassadors act as positive role models for pupils and can illustrate, with enthusiasm, both the specific and transferable skills they have developed as a geographer. For more information you can visit the RGS Ambassador Scheme website.

Career paths

The breadth of career opportunities open to Geography graduates is vast, with recent graduates starting careers in planning, environmental and sustainability projects, water analysis, insurance, teaching and more – both in the UK and overseas.

Whatever you choose to do after graduation, your Geography degree will stand you in good stead, with excellent employment prospects and transferable skills.

Below are a few examples of initial jobs undertaken by graduates from our Geography undergraduate programmes*.

Recent graduates are now working as:

• Chartered and certified accountants
• Business and related research professionals
• Data analysts
• Brokers
• Property, housing and estate managers
• Marketing associate professionals
• Estimators, valuers and assessors
• Project support officers
• Primary and secondary education teaching professionals
• Information technology professionals

Recent graduates are now working for:

• Babcock International
• BNP Paribas
• Centrica
• Environment Agency
• Ernst & Young
• European Space Agency
• NHS
• Ordnance Survey
• Oxborough Surveyors LLP
• Skanska
• UK Hydrographic Office

Further study

Further study is a popular choice for a number of students following graduation from a Geography undergraduate degree. Below are a few examples of further study undertaken by recent graduates of undergraduate programmes*.

• Graduate Diploma in Law
• MA Quantity Surveying
• MRes Sustainable Development
• MSc Environmental Consultancy
• MSc Flood and Coastal Engineering
• MSc Geospatial Sciences
• MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies
• MSc Management
• MSc Public Health
• MSc Rural Land and Business Management
• MSc Transport and Planning

*This information has been taken from aggregating the responses from full-time, first degree, UK domiciled students who completed 2017/18 and 2018/19 Graduate Outcomes surveys. Please note that, due to data protection, the job titles and organisations are listed independently and do not necessarily correspond.