Geography with a Year Abroad

From understanding how landscapes are shaped, to how populations move and interact, to the impact climate change has on us, the study of geography has never been more relevant.

All of our Geography degrees 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 or business and retail management.

Our strong relationships with industry enable us to provide great work experience opportunities to enhance your employability.

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, Berlin, Malaysian Borneo, Mallorca, New York or Vancouver.

Through this degree, you will explore topical issues such as environmental and climatic change, migration and identity, glaciology and ice-sheet dynamics, global environmental modelling and Earth observation, and social theory and urban space. You'll also get the chance to experience different cultures and may even learn some valuable language skills through your year abroad.

You will be taught in our £4.2m state-of-the-art Science laboratories, in a vibrant and friendly department. 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.

This degree is also offered as a four-year course with a year in industry (F554).

"I loved my degree. I was always fascinated in the wonders of the World and what made it tick. Geography helps you look at the World with an analytical eye. It forces you to weigh up evidence and come to conclusions and question the origin of things. Journalism is exactly the same."

• Melanie Bromley, BA (Hons) Geography, West Coast bureau chief of American Celebrity Magazine US Weekly

Please come along to our next Open Day or get in touch for further information.** Book an Open Day here: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/our-open-days/

Typically in Year 1 you'll study several compulsory modules covering topics such as global environmental change, people place and nation, global shifts and sustainability. You will then choose from optional modules which have previously included topics covering geographical skills and methods, writing skills and personal development planning and practical field projects, and topics such as mobilities and migration, urban geography and geology.
In Year 2, typically you'll choose from a range of optional modules covering data analysis, approaches to human and physical geography, and conducting social and environmental research. You'll study topics such as geographic information systems, glacial environments and processes, creative geographies, quaternary environmental change, regional economic development and policy, boundaries and connections, global vegetation patterns and dynamics, political geographies, urban modelling 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 year abroad at one of our partner institutions experiencing a different culture.
In Year 4, you'll undertake your dissertation and choose from a range of optional modules which have previously included topics such as migration, security and humanism, contemporary rural Britain, geographies of national identity, glaciology, humid tropical environments and landscapes, meteorology and atmospheric science, plate tectonics and global geophysics, World cities, environmental modelling and the climate of the last 1,000 years.

On the BA 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.