Course summary

From exploring landscapes and how they are shaped, to interpreting satellite Earth observation and GIS data, to monitoring environmental changes from Space, the study of geography is more relevant than ever. If you’re particularly focused on enhancing your employability and have a keen interest in physical geography and science, our BSc with a year in industry is an excellent choice that 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. 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 the Brecon Beacons, 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 glacial environments and processes, climate change, meteorology and plate tectonics. You’ll also get the chance to develop some valuable transferable work skills in your penultimate year of study through an industrial placement. 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. You will learn from internationally renowned academics including Professor Tavi Murray, the first woman to be awarded Polar Medal by HM Queen, Professor Adrian Luckman, who has achieved global media coverage for his climate change research, Professor Peter North, who received international coverage of his work with NASA, and Professor Siwan Davies, whose work focuses on the dramatic changes to our climate. You can change between our BA and BSc schemes up until the end of Year 2. This degree is also offered as a four-year course with a year abroad (F8R9). “The fieldwork opportunities at Swansea University have been as various as they have been plentiful and have given me a wealth of scientific experience…The best thing about studying Geography is how the subject is so broad the skill sets you learn and develop over the three years can be applied across many different business sectors!”

• Tomas Howells, BSc Geography