Geography and Planning - BA(Hons)

The course provides a blend between the subjects of Geography and Planning. Although the former dominates year one, greater emphasis is given to planning over the course of the remaining years. All of the modules in year one are compulsory but in years two and three you have the option to focus on certain areas.

Year one

During your first year you will explore some of the issues and agendas that geographers and planners are embracing. You will also be introduced to some of the key theories and ideas that are helping us to respond to the challenges identified, and the key skills and competencies that are being demonstrated by practising geographers and planners.

You will study the following compulsory modules:

• Healthy Sustainable Communities
• Geographies of Globalisation
• Culture, Society and Place
• People and Planning
• Geographical Skills

Year two

During year two you will begin to understand the role for planning in helping to address the type of challenges identified through year one. You will study the following compulsory modules:

• Future Places
• Property Development Practice and Law
• Real Estate Economics
• Researching the City

You then need to select two of the following modules:

• Ecology
• Managing Global Resources
• Regenerating Cities
• Rural Change and Development
• Migration, Policy and Society
• Culture, Geography and Tourism

Final year

This year provides further opportunity to individualise your study. All students will need to take this module:

• Achieving Design Quality

You will also need to select either:

• Environmental Assessment (non-placement students) or
• Placement (placement students)

You will also need to select between:

• Final Year Project or
• Independent Project (Planning), and
• Design and Implementation Project

You will also need to select two modules from either:

• Planning Global Cities
• International Tourism Development and the Environment
• Managing National Parks
• Environmental Management in the Global South
• Transforming Cities
• Renewable Energy
• Integrated Water Management

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved we will inform you.

Our diverse team of staff achieves consistently high scores on the National Student Survey and provides a friendly, enabling environment for learning. Staff regularly attend conferences and produce articles for publication. Many are also involved with professional and subject-based networks through which research and policy agendas are shaped.

Our focus on active learning means that you will encounter a wide range of innovative classroom and field based learning involving lectures, tutorials, workshops, seminars, and e-learning. You will develop your creativity and problem solving skills throughout the course, working in our studios on exciting and contemporary project briefs. Some of these will involve you working with real-life problems, communities or leading practitioners, often in multidisciplinary contexts.

Through our Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme, first year students receive mentoring and support from second year students to enhance the learning experience across our courses.

Find out more about our department's approach to learning and teaching.

For more details see our full glossary of learning and teaching terms.

After successfully completing three years of full-time study, you will graduate with a BA(Hons) in Geography and Planning. To satisfy the educational requirements of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) for becoming a Corporate and Chartered Planner, further study and a period of work experience is required. Additional study can be done in a variety of ways, with a number of options available at UWE Bristol.

Geography and Planning students who are keen to extend their studies in planning can transfer into year two of BSc Urban Planning and work towards a degree that is partially accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute. Students may also be eligible for a transfer into Urban Planning depending on the options chosen in years two and three.

You will be assessed through a combination of coursework and examinations. Examinations are held in either January or May and include written exams, in-class tests or assessed presentations. Coursework is varied and involves writing essays or reports, undertaking surveys or design work, or producing team based projects. You are actively encouraged to do formative work to prepare for assessments. This will not count towards your final marks but feedback should help you enhance your final mark. Support is available for any students who need it.

For more details see our full glossary of assessment terms.