Geography MSci (Hons)

First year

The modular structure allows you maximum flexibility in developing your own interests without channeling you into decisive choices too early. In the first year you will study issues crucial to the shape of the world and our place within it, such as natural hazards, landslides, floods, global environmental change and cultural landscapes, as well as contemporary urban issues using Birmingham as a real-world laboratory. There are also fieldtrips to the likes of Ironbridge and the Lake District.

Compulsory modules

• Contemporary Human Geography
• Global Environmental Issues
• Environmental Research Frontiers
• Research methods, field work, and data analysis
• Tutorials and Study Skills for Geographers
• Widening Horizons Module
• Statistical Methods and Applied Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

The second year will provide you with deeper subject knowledge in areas of your choice. You will be introduced to specialist techniques such as computer cartography and the use of databases. You will also learn how to develop a research proposal, which may be the starting point for your dissertation in the final year. Training in more advanced fieldwork skills is provided by courses held in European centres.

Compulsory modules

• Statistical Methods and Applied Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Dissertation Labs and Fieldwork: Theory and Practice - Human Geography and Planning
• Research Methods for Human Geography
• Research Labs and Fieldwork: Theory and Practice - Human Geography and Planning

Optional modules - Example optional modules may include:

• Geomorphology and Palaeoenvironments
• Catchment Water and Soil Management
• Ecological Systems
• Hydroclimatology: Climate and Water
• Environmental Assessment and Management
• Understanding Neighbourhood Poverty
• Social and Political Geography
• Environmental Pollution
• Economic Geography: Cities and Regions
• Cultural and Development Geographies
• Critical Issues for 21st Century Ecosystems

In the third year you select from a wide range of modules that provide more specialised knowledge and skills in the areas of Geography that appeal to you. You also undertake a supervised dissertation on a topic of your own choice.

Compulsory modules

• Geography Research

Optional modules - Example optional modules may include:

• Advanced Fieldwork Research
• Urban Environments in the Global South
• Geography in the Classroom
• Applied Micrometeorology
• Climates of the Past
• Environment and Landscape Change
• Environmental Governance
• Environmental Protection
• Landscape and Urban Ecology
• Professional Placement for Geographers
• River Processes, Deposits and Environments
• Weather, Climate and Society
• Restoration of Freshwater Ecosystems
• Carceral Geographies
• Welfare, Work and Wealth
• War and Peace in the Middle East
• Environmental Justice
• Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere
• Biodiversity and Conservation Management
• Wetland Environments
• Alternative Economies
• Understanding Nature-Society Relations: the Ecological Century
• Cultural Geographies of Development
• Network Geographies
• Geographies of Children and Young People
• Conservation Practice: Genes to Ecosystems
• Russia in a Global Context
• Gender, body & performance
• Palaeoclimates
• Climate change in the Earth System
• Environmental Management: Theory, Policy, Practice
• Pollution impacts and waste management
• Cities and Conflict
• The political economy of agrarian change in the Global South
• Extractive Politics

The MSci provides a natural continuation to your first 3 years of study and allows you to further your studies in human geography (city & modernity, geopolitics & globalisation, local economic development), physical geography (meteorological applications, hydrological & biogeochemical processes, river restoration) and environmental assessment or indeed a mixture of the disciplines.

Human Geography pathway

Compulsory Modules

• Project
• Doing Human Geography
• Theoretical Themes for Geographers

Optional Modules - Example optional modules may include:

• Geopolitics and Globalisation
• City and Modernity
• Creative Economies and Creative Cities
• Hydrogeomorphology and Catchment Management

Physical Geography pathway

Compulsory Modules

• Project
• Advanced Geographic and Environmental Research

Optional Modules - Example optional modules may include:

• Meteorological Applications and Services
• Atmospheric Observations
• Environmental Analysis and Modelling
• Advances in Water Science and River Management

Please note: The modules listed on the website for this programme are regularly reviewed to ensure they are up-to-date and informed by the latest research and teaching methods. Unless indicated otherwise, the modules listed for this programme are for students starting in 2020. On rare occasions, we may need to make unexpected changes to compulsory modules after that date; in this event we will contact offer holders as soon as possible to inform or consult them as appropriate.