BSc (Hons) in Geography

Year one (Level 4) modules

• Environment, People and Place
• World of Ideas
• Environmental Change
• Cities and Environment
• Sustainability in Life and Work
• Communicating Science

Year two (Level 5) modules

• Contested Geographies: Histories and Debates
• Geographical Research Methods
• Geomorphology and Environmental Hazards
• Climate and Society
• Geographical Fieldwork: Hazards, Disasters and Sustainable Development
• Geotechnologies for Society and Environment
• Spatial Development Planning: A Global Perspective
• Migration: Identity, Belonging, Citizenship and Security
• Social Problems, Social Divisions, Social Justice
• The Art of the Possible: Political Analysis and Policy Making
• Diaspora, Migration and Race
• Environmental Management
• Work Placement
• Professional Placement Year

Please note: If you are entering your first year in September 2024, the optional Spatial Development Planning module will no longer be available. Instead, you may choose to study a new module called Global Development and Environment.

Year three (Level 6) modules

• Geography Dissertation
• Advanced Geographical Fieldwork: Society, Culture and Environment
• Identities and Inequalities
• Coastal and River Management
• Disaster Risk Reduction
• Culture, Risk and Environmental Justice
• Community Engagement
• Gender in Society: Critical Perspectives
• Plants and People
• Environmental Practice
• Conservation Politics in Africa

What you'll learn

Overview

Our Geography degree is designed to teach you about a broad range of topics and to provide you with the opportunity to choose modules in human or physical geography, depending on your interests.

You’ll learn from expert lecturers who are active researchers engaging with pressing global challenges including natural hazards, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation in Europe, Asia, North America, Central America, and Africa.

You’ll have the chance to experience international field trips and a work placement, through which you’ll develop practical transferable skills that are applicable to a variety of careers.

Course structure

Year one
Your first year helps you to transition to university-level Geography by establishing foundational skills and knowledge. You’ll develop these basic skills and knowledge through modules in both human and physical geography covering topics such as cities, environmental change and sustainable development.

Year two
In your second year, you’ll develop more specialist knowledge and skills. In core modules you’ll develop your understanding of the discipline of geography, learn how to apply geotechnologies to real-world challenges and develop skills that can be used in a wide range of careers.

Optional modules enable you to specialise in topics in human or physical geography, such as:

• climate change
• environmental hazards
• global development and environment
• migration
• race and social justice
• politics and policy making, or
• environmental management.

You’ll also start to plan for your career, with an opportunity to undertake an optional work placement module.

The optional field trip to Italy offers a unique opportunity to explore geographical themes in a highly dynamic, real-world context. On this trip you’ll learn about a range of topics such as earthquake disasters, flood hazards, air quality and pollution, climate change impacts and vulnerabilities, regional development, sustainability, and urban geographies. You’ll also have opportunities to experience the regional diversity, food and culture of Italy.

Please note that some of our field trips may incur additional costs on top of your course fees. Financial support for field trip costs may be available via the Bath Spa University International Travel Fund.

You can choose to undertake an optional Professional Placement Year between your second and final years.

Year three
You’ll complete a final year independent research project, allowing you to demonstrate the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired on the course. Students have undertaken their final year dissertation projects in locations across the UK, as well as in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Kenya, and Ghana.

You’ll have a choice of optional modules that give you the opportunity to continue to specialise in human or physical geography, exploring topics such as:

• disaster risk reduction
• identities and inequalities
• coastal and river management
• environmental practice
• gender in society
• conservation politics
• plants and people
• environmental justice.

An optional field trip to Barcelona allows you to study topics such as urban development, wildfires and cascading hazards, social inequalities, urban sustainability policies, city planning, coastal erosion, nationalism and independence movements, heat waves, Olympic legacies or urban flood risks.

How will I be assessed?

You’ll be assessed through a variety of engaging and challenging assessment formats designed to help you to develop key skills and to prepare for your future career or postgraduate study.

Your assessments will depend on the modules you choose, but may include a mix of essays, projects, reports, posters, presentations, video clips, field or lab-based activities, reflective commentaries or online tests.

Most modules are assessed primarily through coursework and assessment rather than tests or exams.

You'll complete many of your assessments as an individual, but there are also some group projects designed to help you to develop essential collaborative working skills.

In addition to the help provided by your subject lecturers, you can also access extensive support for your assessments through ASk, the Academic Skills Service.

You’ll graduate from this degree prepared for a diverse range of careers in sectors such as research, consultancy, urban planning, business, education, surveying, geographical information systems, government, or non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The course also provides you with the knowledge and skills needed to progress to postgraduate study in a wide range of fields. Our graduates have undertaken postgraduate study in fields such as disaster management, climate change adaptation, sustainability, environmental management, environmental humanities, urban planning, education, public health and law.

Whatever your aspirations, our aim is that the real-world experience you gain on this course will set you up to take on diverse challenges, and to thrive in doing so.

How will I be taught?

You’ll be taught in lectures, workshops and seminars, with small groups that enable discussion and collaborative learning. You’ll learn in the classroom, lab and outdoors, with fieldwork on campus and at locations across the UK and overseas.

Course length

Three years full time, or four years full time with professional placement year. Part time available.