Geology

This Certificate of Higher Education in Geology gives you the opportunity to focus on the study of the Earth, its environments and the processes that formed it, giving you essential knowledge about how we can better protect our planet.

Why choose this course?

• You will be able to help guide governments, industry and society on how best to use the Earth’s raw materials and on the potential for using renewable energy in the most sustainable manner.

• This course can be taken as a qualification in its own right or used as credit to progress to the BSc Geology, providing a route to becoming a chartered geologist.

• It offers you flexible teaching methods, through on-campus or online classes, or a combination of both.

What you will learn

On this course you will learn how to identify key environmental indicators used by geologists to understand the processes that have produced the Earth, and the effects of human interactions with the Earth. This includes rock, mineral and fossil assemblages, alongside landscapes and geomorphology.

You will also learn important aspects of scientific disciplines such as biology, geography, physics, chemistry, planetary science, material science, mathematics, cartography, numerical modelling, computer science, sustainability and environmental protection, and learn how to use these to formulate hypotheses, hypothesis tests and process-based solutions that help humans protect Earth’s environments through sustainable activities.

How you will learn

You can study this course on campus, online or through a combination of both. Classes take place in the evening.

The course is taught through lectures in state-of-the-art laboratories and lecture spaces, and field classes. Teaching also includes live video-streams, digital lecture notes and use of our electronic library. We have an extensive collection of rocks, minerals and fossils on site, plus digital archives of topography, landscape and geomorphology and geological maps.

You will have the option to attend a residential field class in South Wales or a virtual online field course.

Highlights

• This course can lead towards our BSc Geology which is accredited by the Geological Society of London. We are the only university that offers this option through online learning.

• Students benefit from the research activities of our staff and our close collaboration with University College London whose Earth Sciences department is situated nearby. We share some laboratories and research facilities and collaborate with them on research.

• Birkbeck was rated in the top 25 universities in the UK for its Earth Systems and Environmental Science research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

• We have been offering evening courses in geology for over 130 years and distance learning for more than 20 years.

Careers and employability

This course equips you with important transferable skills including:

• understanding Earth processes relevant to a wide variety of environmental and resource industries, and to government, civil protection and other employers

• research methods and approaches

• writing and understanding scientific documents, using spreadsheets, carrying out numerical calculations and making key observations that facilitate data collection

• making and interpreting maps, using a variety of cartographic skills and geographic information systems

• independent field surveys, mapping and data collection, and how to work in a team of scientists.

Graduates can pursue career paths in:

• the environmental protection industry

• the oil, mineral and groundwater industries

• the insurance industry

• the hazard and risk industry

• civil protection government institutes

• museums and curation

• tourism for natural environments

• academia

• geology.

Possible professions include:

• engineering geologist

• geochemist

• geophysicist

• hydrogeologist

• higher education lecturer.

For information about course structure and the moules you will be studying, please visit Birkbeck’s online prospectus.

A combination of reports on field-based projects, laboratory work and written examinations. Some modules include continuous assessment through written work.