Geography with a Year in Industry

Receive an education that is at the forefront of addressing key social, cultural and environmental challenges and be empowered to make a significant difference in the world with BA Geography at Swansea University. Our programme will provide you with a broad understanding of geography, including human and physical geography, environmental science and geology. You will explore topics such as climate change, natural hazards, pollution, coastal management, urban and rural geographies, and political and economic geographies.
BA Geography at Swansea combines strong theoretical foundations with meaningful real-world experience. You will learn across a variety of settings, from classroom and laboratory work to hands-on field study. At Swansea University, you can design your BA Geography experience to suit your interests. As you progress through our course, you will discover opportunities to specialise, prepare for future careers and work towards addressing global challenges, spanning war and inequality, to wildfires and plastic pollution.
The optional Foundation Year for this programme can give you an exciting introduction to higher education, setting you up with the skills, confidence, and knowledge that you’ll need to be successful in your undergraduate degree. It’s ideal if you need a little more support after further education, or are returning to education after a gap. Following successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will progress onto Year 1 of your BA.
This course also offers you the opportunity to spend a Year in Industry, in the UK or overseas, enabling you to gain valuable workplace experience. The University advocates for paid-only placements, which on average have a salary of over £20,000. Unpaid placements are considered on a case-by-case basis.

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 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 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 which in previous years have 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. You’ll also have the opportunity to undertake an interdisciplinary field trip to the Indian Himalayas (Sikkim).

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.