Geography

Perhaps more than any other subject in the world, geography helps us under-stand what is going on in it. You may see a civil war being fought on a dusty plain in Africa and the chances are that oil or mineral deposits, drought or human migration lies somewhere in the background, in the history both of the war and of that dusty plain.

Geography has always seemed to lack street cred with potential undergraduates. The image of anoraks and Kendal Mint Cake still lingers, yet the subject has been transformed in the last decade. It's been given a makeover by cultural and political trends that have seen it shake off the traditional perception of a degree based on precipitation cycles and plate tectonics to become a multi-disciplinary subject tackling fundamental questions about the environment, the movement of peoples around the globe and population patterns.

Geography is unique in bridging the social sciences and the earth sciences. In fact you can emerge with a BA or a BSc from different institutions, with no discernible difference in the course. Like many of the older subjects, it is taking an increasingly multidisciplinary approach, encompassing ecology, geology, economics and politics to create an applied science with skills of interpretation and analysis, which are invaluable to future employers, and which make geography one of the top courses in terms of graduate recruitment.

The career options available are extremely wide-ranging. You can head off to pursue jobs directly related to geography - such as in town and transport planning or environmental consultancy - or you could use your skills in more general careers such as IT or marketing. The third option is, of course, to continue with full-time study and training to develop a career in teaching or research, or to gain further qualifications for entry into more specialist professions.

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