Geography with a Foundation Year

If you do not meet the requirements to enter our three-year degree programmes, then our four-year BSc Geography with a Foundation Year may be for you.

Our foundation programme gives you the chance to develop the skills essential to completing your degree. Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, you can progress to our BSc Geography programme.

Our Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) accredited programme BSc Geography covers themes which include glaciology, climate and weather science, earth observation, using satellite data to study environmental change, volcanology and earth sciences.

Course Modules

In Year 1 you'll typically study introductory physical and human geography modules, along with broader introductory natural science topics such as environmental science and laboratory skills and data handling and mathematics skills. You'll participate in small-group tutorial sessions to learn about key study skills, such as essay writing, and current themes in geographical research. Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, you'll progress onto the BSc in Geography.
In Year 2 you'll typically 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 topics such as mobility and migration, urban geography and geology.
In Year 3, you'll choose from a range of optional modules which have previously included topics such as data analysis, approaches to human and physical geography, and conducting social and environmental research. Other examples include 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 4, you'll undertake your dissertation and choose from a range of optional modules. In previous years these 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 BSc Geography with Foundation Year 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.