Geography (Study Abroad) BSc (Hons)

Discover Geography at Lancaster and overseas with our exciting Study Abroad programme. Explore a range of amazing locations and learn from world-renowned lecturers.

Geography is a distinctive subject: it studies our world in a vast range of areas. Our Study Abroad programme provides a unique first-hand experience of work and life in a different country. You will spend a year exploring the diverse physical environments, societies and culture in North America or Australasia, as well as benefiting from our world-class teaching at the state-of-the-art Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC).

While studying at LEC, you will have access to a host of new facilities including teaching and research labs, computer systems and software, and even our very own weather monitoring station! Working in comfortable class sizes, you will have the opportunity to get to know your lecturers personally, enabling you to benefit from their expert knowledge and helpful one-to-one advice.

Modules taken at Lancaster will make extensive use of the rural settings of the north and the bustling cities of Liverpool and Manchester, allowing you to explore some of the UK’s most unique areas of geographic interest. You will gain a wealth of hands-on experience with field trips to places such as the Yorkshire Dales, Cumbrian coast and Lake District, as well as to international locations including Iceland, Croatia and New York.

You will develop a fundamental understanding of human, physical and environmental geography in your first year Geography modules. These modules equip you with a well-rounded introduction to some of the key themes of geography, as well as providing you with some of the key skills used by geographers to analyse problems in both the physical and human aspects of the discipline.

Second year modules will be taught at a partner university in North America or Australasia. You may engage in topics such as cities and globalisation, environmental change, glacial systems, coastal processes, and water management. In addition, you will gain valuable fieldwork experience in another country.

In the third year, you will undertake a dissertation project, guided by an academic supervisor, which offers a chance to perform original geographical research on a topic of your choice. While completing the dissertation, you will use the key research, analytical and academic writing skills you have learnt throughout your degree. You will be offered further optional module choices with an emphasis on both human and physical geography, and there will be fieldwork opportunities in locations such as Iceland, the Amazon and New York.

Assessment

We offer flexible programmes with a strong emphasis on practical learning. You will engage in a wide range of classroom and lab-based modules that span the breadth of geographical topics and infuse content from across the physical sciences as well as from the humanities, and the social sciences. Your work will be regularly assessed by a combination of classroom and lab-based assignments, in addition to written examinations and project reports.

Careers

Geography graduates can achieve success in a variety of exciting careers. Recent examples of career opportunities have included entering the professions of Planning Officer, Environmental Consultant, Geographical Information Systems Officer, Weather Forecaster, Emergency Planner, Technical Consultant with the Ordnance Survey, Intelligent Transport Systems Consultant, or Water Waste Management at Severn Trent Water. Alternatively, many of our graduates choose to continue their studies to postgraduate level. Our goal is to empower all our graduates with the skills, confidence and experience they need to achieve a successful career.