Geography BSc(Hons)

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course structure

Our Geography degree course allows you to develop a programme of study that matches your interests and career ambitions. You'll study six core modules in your first year, helping you to develop a strong foundation of knowledge and skills that you'll draw on for the rest of your degree.

Teaching methods consist of lectures, practical classes, fieldwork and seminars, but real-world experience is at the heart of the curriculum. As such you will experience a field trip to Sicily in your second year. This practical fieldwork component allows you to apply your knowledge to real-world concerns.

You have the option to enrol on this course part-time, giving you more flexibility in the way you choose to study.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 1

The first year introduces key themes in physical, human and environmental geography, with core modules that cover the physical forces of landscape change, the impacts of environmental change on the physical and human environments and the effect that humans have on environmental processes.

Modules

• Global Environmental Challenges

  This module introduces pressing global environmental challenges which you'll explore through natural science and social science case studies. The module focuses on scientific, social, economic and political aspects of current and past environmental issues and examines how some of the issues may be addressed through interdisciplinary management and mitigation.

• Fundamentals of Physical Geography

  This module provides a theoretical and practical introduction to azonal (tectonic, climatic, hydrological, fluvial, coastal, slope, aeolian, and biogeographical) and zonal (glacial and periglacial) physical geographical systems. You will examine the ways in which these systems interact with and influence human activities, both at the present day and over archaeological timescales.

• Academic Learning and Field Skills

  This module will introduce you to academic study skills, fieldwork skills and transferable skills for geography and environmental sciences. The module will support you in how to learn at university, and in particular, with learning independently. You'll also take part in a residential field course where you will learn field data collection and analysis techniques, methodology design and how to present research findings.

• Statistical and Spatial Data Analysis

  This module introduces techniques used to analyse geographical and environmental data in both the academic and professional worlds. You'll develop the skills and abilities needed to display data graphically and visually, and to assess patterns/relationships through statistical testing, and geospatial display and analysis. You'll become a competent user of statistical software to support and hone your skills, and in the use and application of geospatial/remote sensing data and associated geographical information systems (GIS) software packages.

• Human Geography

  This module provides a critical introduction to key themes in human geography. You will develop an appreciation of geographical concepts such as nature, space, place and scale through consideration of geographies of global political-economic change, past and contemporary cultural geographies and geographical imaginations, and social geographies of everyday life.

• A Brief History of Earth

  Explore the evolution of the Earth and its climatic and environmental change over time. You will examine key concepts in the academic disciplines of geology, quaternary science and archaeology, enabling you to understand deep time trajectories alongside more recent climatic and environmental changes, through to the modern epoch of the Anthropocene.

Year 2

Year 2 is where you start to explore the subjects that interest you most by choosing option modules. To support your studies, core modules develop your employability and professional skills, and you'll work on your investigative and analytical field skills.

Core modules

• Professional Practice for Global Challenges
• Research and Field Skills

Options*

• Earth Surface Processes
• Human Origins and Evolution
• Ancient and Prehistoric Societies
• Climate Change
• Sustainable Futures
• Ice Age Earth
• Environmental Pollution
• Critical Digital Geographies
• Social Justice in Everyday Spaces
• GIS and Remote Sensing: Principles and Practice

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placement year

A placement year offers you a great opportunity to:

• build knowledge of real-world businesses and organisations
• develop existing skills and discover new ones
• make contacts in industry and commerce
• increase your confidence
• improve your time management.

In recent years, our students have been successful in competing for nationally advertised positions with the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Transport for London and the Field Studies Council.

Other students have secured placements with environmental firms and consultancies, a multi-national telecommunications company and a renewable energy research centre in Spain.

Final year 

The focus for your final year is your independent dissertation. You will work closely with an expert academic to investigate a topic of your choice, applying the research methods and analytical skills covered in the first two years of your course.

Option modules enable you to tailor your programme of study to support your dissertation and your future career aspirations.

Core module

• Dissertation

Options*

• Humans of Ice Age Britain
• Dynamic Landscapes
• Waste Management and the Circular Economy
• Geographies of Genders and Sexualities
• Advanced GIS and Remote Sensing
• Community Engagement
• Rivers, Coasts and Wetlands: Assessment and Management
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• The Frozen Planet
• Water, Sanitation and Health
• Atmosphere, Weather and Climate
• Political Ecology: Contested Environments
• Confronting Coloniality and Racism: Political Geographies of Territory and Security
• Research Field Skills, Brazil

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Meet the team

Course fees

If you choose to take the professional placement (sandwich) year offered on this course you will pay a reduced fee during this year. Our fee for the professional placement year is £1,410 for UK students and £2,180 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2024–25.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton