graduate studies in geography

PhD/MLitt

Submission of a structured research proposal is a requirement for application to our MLitt and PhD programmes. Proposals and a CV should be sent to the Director for Graduate Studies. Decisions on applications are made by Geography’s Graduate Committee ( entry requirements). As part of the doctoral training available on the structured PhD programme, students avail themselves of a range of interdisciplinary taught modules. The wide menu of available options includes modules that:

• are discipline-specific in that they augment the student’s existing knowledge in their specialist area;
  
• are dissertation-specific in that they supply core skills which are essential to completion of the research project e.g. core research skills and techniques relating to specific data collection and interpretation requirements;
  
• acknowledge a student’s professional development e.g. presentation of papers at International Conferences, and;
  
• enhance a student’s employability through generic training, e.g. careers workshops and computer literacy.

MA in Environment, Society and Development

Our Masters in Environment, Society and Development is designed to enable students to synthesize both theoretical and practical concerns in bringing critical thinking to environment-society relations in the field. The programme involves engagement with issues of geopolitics, development, governance and political ecology, and exposes students to vital global challenges that encompass a complex and dynamic mesh of environmental, social and economic processes. Our aspiration is to:

• empower students to become critically informed by, and ethically engaged with, the various (geo)political, social, economic and environmental processes that shape the world in which we live;
  
• enable students to intersect with the development work of the European Commission, UN agencies and various NGOs through our field-based learning module in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
  
• prepare students for a range of workplaces including government departments, non-governmental organizations, planning and project management agencies and specialist research and policy institutes;
  
• develop transferable and problem-solving skills through a clear focus on field-based learning practices embedded in all modules;
  
• provide students with the necessary stimulation and encouragement to, where suitable, undertake further research at PhD level.
  

MA in Rural Sustainability

• develop student’s understanding of the complexity of rural areas and engage with key debates within sustainable rural systems;
  
• enable critical insight into the myriad ways in which EU, national and regional rural policies interact, synergise and/or conflict; 
  
• develop abilities to critically link policy and practice from academic and practitioner perspectives and identify areas of conflict and contradiction;
  
• challenge and facilitate students to go beyond the established conceptual dichotomies (e.g. urban-rural) and engage new ways of understanding and dealing with contemporary rural complexities; 
  
• build networks with key agencies, stakeholders and leaders in rural communities nationally and internationally; 
  
• acquire essential transferable skills, such as communication, organisation and leadership skills; problem solving and decision making skills supported by the focus on practical and field-based learning, including international field course, service learning, work experience and work placement possibilities, and
  
• provide students with the necessary stimulation and encouragement to, where suitable, undertake further research at PhD level.