Physical Geography with a Year in Industry

From exploring landscapes and how they are shaped, to interpreting satellite Earth observation and GIS data, to monitoring environmental changes from Space, the study of geography is more relevant than ever.

If you're particularly focused on enhancing your employability and have a keen interest in physical geography, this scheme will equip you with highly desirable practical, numerical and computational skills for a wide range of careers. These include regional planning, environmental management, local authority work, financial planning, computing and business and retail management.

Our strong relationships with industry enable us to provide great work experience opportunities to enhance your employability. We help you to find your work placement and support you during your year in industry.

We are ideally placed to offer exceptional fieldwork opportunities.. Just a short drive from the UK's first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Gower Peninsula, you will have easy access to Bannau Brycheiniog, rural west Wales and the urban and industrial landscapes of South Wales. You'll also have an opportunity to carry out fieldwork overseas in Austria, Malaysian Borneo, Mallorca or Vancouver.

Through this degree, you will explore topical issues such as glacial environments and processes, global environmental change, global geophysics and plate tectonics. You'll also get the chance to develop some valuable transferable work skills in your penultimate year of study through an industrial placement. You'll have access to our high-performance computer lab for processing and interpreting satellite Earth observation and GIS data, a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer, a climatic test chamber, mineral magnetic characterisation equipment and an automatic organic carbon analyser.

"All the lecturers were incredibly helpful and committed to the students. Definitely choose to study at Swansea, not only will you receive an outstanding level of teaching from all lecturers, you will have an incredible experience outside of University exploring everything Swansea has to offer." - Jack Philpott, BSc Physical Geography

In Year 1 you'll study several compulsory modules covering topics such as global environmental change, Earth in action and Earth's changing face. You will then choose from optional modules covering geographical skills and methods, writing skills and personal development planning and practical field projects, and topics such as sustainability, people place and nation, colonial and postcolonial geographies, mobilities and migration and geology.
In Year 2, you'll choose from a range of optional modules covering data analysis, approaches to physical geography and environmental research methods, and topics such as geographic information systems, glacial environments and processes, the Earth from Space, quaternary environmental change, global vegetation patterns and dynamics, urban modelling, Earth history and geological record of past environments. You'll also have an opportunity to take part in an overseas field trip.
In Year 3, you'll spend a minimum of 40 weeks in an industrial placement in a UK company. Occasionally, opportunities may arise outside of the UK. You'll receive support from our placements team during your 2nd year to help you prepare for and secure a relevant industrial placement.
In Year 4, you'll undertake your dissertation and choose from a range of optional modules covering topics such as glaciology, humid tropical environments and landscapes, meteorology and atmospheric science, plate tectonics and global geophysics, environmental modelling and the climate of the last 1,000 years. You'll also have the opportunity to undertake an interdisciplinary field trip to the Indian Himalayas (Sikkim).

On the BSc Physical Geography course you will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, practical classes and field classes. You will be assessed through a variety of methods, including examinations, coursework, practical work, fieldwork and continuous assessment from tutorials. You will also complete a dissertation in your final year.

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Royal Geographical Society