University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

 Department of Geography

Course outline

You typically have six to eight lectures each week (with associated reading), as well as practicals, laboratory work and field classes. In addition, you normally have three supervisions a fortnight at which you discuss a topic, usually following preparatory reading and essay writing.

Source:  University of Cambridge

Year 1 (Part IA)

You’re introduced to key themes and issues by studying two core papers:

• Human Geography – topics include globalisation; cultural geography; sustainable development; historical geography; urbanisation; geopolitics; uneven economies
• Physical Geography – topics include tectonics and volcanism; coastal processes; glacial processes; Quaternary climate change; biogeography; atmosphere and climate

You’re assessed at the end of the year by one written examination for each paper.

You also take the Geographical Skills and Methods paper that covers numerical methods; survey techniques; documentary and archival data; spatial data; and field, laboratory and desk-based skills.

Year 2 (Part IB)

All students take a core Geographical Ideas and Themes paper relating to global change, which is assessed through both coursework and written examination.

In addition, you can begin to specialise and select three papers from a choice of six, which are also assessed by a combination of coursework and examination. Each year, three human geography papers and three physical and environmental geography papers are available. The lists below give examples of Part IB papers that may be offered.

Human geography

• Austerity and Affluence
• Development Theories, Policies and Practices
• Citizenship, Cities and Civil Society

Physical and environmental geography

• Glacial Processes
• Biogeography
• Quaternary Climates and Environments

Building on Part IA Skills and Methods, you also undertake project work involving a range of field, laboratory and computer skills and techniques.

You participate in a one-week residential field class that contributes to your final year dissertation research by inspiring your choice of topic and developing specific field research skills. Following the field class, you submit a report on it and a dissertation proposal as part of your second-year assessment, along with statistics/spatial data analysis coursework and written examinations.

Year 3 (Part II)

You can either specialise further or maintain a balance across the subject as a whole. You select four papers from 12, which are assessed by either written examination or by a combination of written examination and coursework. Papers on offer vary each year but recent examples include:

• The Geographies of Global Urbanism
• Political Ecology in the Global South
• Geographies of Discipline and Social Regulation
• Biosedimentary Coastal Systems
• Biogeography
• Glaciology
• The Political Geography of Postcolonialism
• Geographies of the Arctic
• Changing Cultures of Risk
• Volcanology
• Political Appetites: Geographies of Food and Power
• Legal Geographies

You also write a dissertation of 10,000 words on a topic of your choice, which you start work on during the summer vacation between your second and third years. The topic must be defined by the second term of Year 2 and the proposal is assessed as part of your second-year coursework.