Geography, Geology and the Environment

Overview

In the 2013 Guardian University League Tables, Keele Geography was ranked 5th nationally.

• Free choice of third year modules
• Medium-size and small-group teaching
• Residential British-based and overseas field courses
• Personal tutor system with access to staff members
• Significant proportion (50% on average) of assessments based on written work and projects
• A large overall Geography student intake and large modern buildings, with excellent computing facilities
• One of four different Geography degree courses

Overview

Human Geography is the study of individuals and communities, and of places and landscapes in a spatial context and in terms of cultures, economies, societies and resource bases, both in the present and the past.

A rapidly evolving subject, it encompasses a rich diversity of strands. Besides providing an overview of new developments in the subject, the course at Keele focuses on a number of distinct themes and intersecting areas: family mobility. higher education and medical geography/social demography; international migration, development, sustainability and cultural economies; South Asian and cross-cultural world literature, postcolonial lifeworlds and literary representations of place and space; and cultures of mobilities and security, particularly through biopolitics, resilience and the empirical context of the aerial.

Relationships between people and the worlds they inhabit are dynamic, complex and problematic; the Human Geography course offers the opportunity to explore and understand those relationships.

The Human Geography degree can be combined with any of almost 30 other subjects. It assumes no previous specialist knowledge. The modules in the first year combine to provide a broad foundation and overview of the subject. In the second and third years, specialist modules provide the opportunity to concentrate on major sub-disciplines in Human Geography. In addition to these lecture-based modules, there are, in the first and second years, core modules that provide training in concepts, methods and transferable skills central to the study of Human Geography.

Fieldwork is an important part of the degree programme with participation in two residential field courses, one in a choice of overseas locations, in addition to an independent research project.

Course Content

First year

The first year comprises three modules based on lectures and one based on practical classes and fieldwork. In addition, each student will be allocated a personal Human Geography tutor for the year.

Human Geographies explores cultural, social, population and development themes in Human Geography.

Practising Human Geography discusses the approaches and methods used by human geographers in examining those themes.

People and the Environment discusses contemporary approaches to environmental change.

Geographical Skills introduces a wide range of geographical techniques incorporating those for data collection, analysis and presentation and including field survey, statistical analysis and Geographical Information Systems. It also emphasises study skills such as problem solving, group working and the presentation of project results.

Fieldwork plays an important part in the Human Geography programme and provides training and instruction in the use of field methods and techniques. In the first year there are field days in the local area.

Second year

Students take four modules (with some options). The lecture-based modules introduce students to the four major strands in Human Geography pursued at Keele.

Dynamic Worlds, a lecture- based module, introduces students to the sub-areas in Human Geography of environmental geography and of population geography.

Society and Space examines recent developments in cultural geography and social and urban geography.

There are two practical-based modules: Practical Human Geography deals with data sources and research techniques, while Geographical Research Training is a course in research methods and techniques culminating in an overseas field course.

Third year

Lecture-based module choices include:

• Applied Environmental GIS
• Home, Belonging, Locality and Material Culture
• Economic Development and Environmental Transformation
• Post colonialism in South Asia
• Inspirational Landscapes
• Space and the City
• Eco-Cities: Vision of the Good City and Sustainable DevelopmentCultural Geographies of the Everyday

In addition, students have the choice of either a single or double-module dissertation based on individual research. It should be noted that the availability of second and third year modules changes from time to time.

We encourage students to acquire a wide range of analytical and interpersonal skills during the three years of study. This policy includes making full use of the University’s computing facilities. In addition there are several computer laboratories for Geography students and instruction is available.

Fieldwork

In the first year, all students attend a residential course based in Britain. In the second year, Human Geography students participate in an overseas field course; current venues include Barcelona and Singapore.

Some assistance towards meeting the cost of compulsory fieldwork can be given to home students, but it should not be assumed that all costs would be met. Examples of the typical student costs of fieldwork in recent years are: first year £40 and second year approximately £350 for Barcelona and £120 plus flight cost for Singapore.

Study Abroad

Students have the opportunity to spend the first semester of their second year studying at one of our partner universities in Europe or North America.

Codes and Combinations

All students who study a science subject are candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science (with Honours) (BSc Hons).

Dual Honours Course can be combined with:

 * subject to approval

Major and Foundation course available:

Teaching and Assessment

Modules in Human Geography are taught through a combination of lectures, practical classes, tutorials and fieldwork. Assessment in the lecture modules is based on a combination of examinations and coursework.

In the practical classes and field courses all marks are based on individual and group projects.

Programme specifications (new window)

Skills and Careers

Geography involves a wider range of skills, methods and teaching approaches than most subjects. Geography provides practical and applied skills as well as an informed view of the relationship between people and their physical and social environments.

In recent years, Keele Geography graduates have successfully found career openings in a wide range of commercial and public sector activities and many have gone on to take higher degrees.

Visit our Careers pages (new window)

Human Geography and Sociology

Sociology can provide a fascinating and highly effective combination with Human Geography in the Dual Honours system that is Keele’s speciality. Sociology is concerned with the groups, structures and institutions that make up human society. It also looks at the changing global, national and local contexts of society. Here is an immediate point of contact with Human Geography, which also concerns itself with the characteristics of human society, together with their spatial patterns and impacts on the environment. In almost every contemporary social issue there is a geographical dimension, whether it is the growth of globalisation, the distribution of crime and deprivation within urban society or the impact of changing family structures on housing and land-use patterns. Our modern world is changing at an unprecedented rate; the skills and knowledge of a Human Geography/Sociology combination will provide valuable tools for dealing with this change as well as an excellent preparation for a wide range of career opportunities.

Human Geography and History

Human Geography and History represent an attractive, challenging and logical combination of subjects to be read at Keele. The links between the two are many and obvious: no aspect of Human Geography can be satisfactorily appreciated without an effective understanding of its historical development; similarly, all historical processes take place in a spatial context and in human and/or physical environments. Besides acquiring the specialised and distinctive skills of each discipline, this combination offers the opportunity to integrate and apply with advantage spatial and temporal approaches – two of the major analytical tools in the social sciences and humanities – to a range of topics and problems.

For example, studies of gender, welfare provision and planning, development and colonialism, agrarian change and reshaping post-war Europe – all themes of concern in Human Geography and History – are not only better illuminated but enhanced by such dual appraisal. Many students with an interest in both subjects were forced to choose between the two at secondary school. This Keele combination provides students with the chance both to reunite and to explore further these interests. An A/AS level is required in either Geography or History, or in a related subject.

External examiner's comment from his 2011 report:

"The friendliness and relative small size of the department delivers some excellent results and student satisfaction is outstanding."
Professor Stephen Hinchcliffe

In the 2012 National Student Survey, Keele University's Human and Social Geography recorded a very high "overall satisfaction with the course" with a mean score of 4.5 against a sector-wide average of 4.2.