Geography
Geography is a discipline of unusual breadth, connecting the physical sciences with the social sciences and the humanities to understand the world in its full complexity. Physical geography examines the Earth's landscapes, climate systems, rivers, coasts, and ecosystems, asking how they formed, how they function, and how they are changing under the pressure of human activity and climate change. Human geography explores how people organise themselves spatially, how places develop and decline, how identities and inequalities are produced in particular locations, and how the global forces of migration, trade, urbanisation, and environmental change reshape lives and communities.
Studied together, these two dimensions of the discipline produce graduates who can think analytically across the natural and social worlds.
At York St John University, this part-time programme is accredited by the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, which is a recognised mark of professional quality in geography education. A foundation year is available for students who benefit from additional preparation before the degree proper. A sandwich year is also incorporated, giving you the opportunity for a substantial professional placement, and work placements are embedded throughout the course.
A year abroad is available, broadening your geographical experience in a different national context. You will develop fieldwork skills, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and the ability to analyse and communicate complex geographical information.
Geography graduates work in environmental consulting, local government, urban planning, conservation, development agencies, mapping and geospatial technology, teaching, research, humanitarian organisations, and the public sector more broadly. The combination of analytical skills and fieldwork experience that geography develops is valued in any role requiring spatial thinking, environmental awareness, or the ability to interpret complex data about places and people. Postgraduate study in geography, environmental science, urban planning, or GIS is a well-supported further step.