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Description

Programme Specification for the 2022/3 academic year

BA (Hons) Geography

1. Programme Details

Programme nameBA (Hons) Geography Programme codeUFA3GOAGOA04
Study mode(s)Full Time
 Academic year2022/3
Campus(es)Streatham (Exeter)
 NQF Level of the Final Award6 (Honours)

2. Description of the Programme

This popular undergraduate programme on the Streatham campus will provide you with a broad understanding of geographical aspects of human society and the physical environment, and their complex interrelationships. It provides you the opportunity to develop your interests in the discipline and gain a more detailed appreciation of a variety of specific aspects of geography in which the Discipline specialises. Through field work and other forms of experiential learning, the programme aims to promote your curiosity about social, cultural and natural environments and to enable you to develop a range of skills specific to the geographer as well as a series of cognitive, generic and transferable skills.

The BA programmes offer the opportunity for you to undertake human geography research methods, participate in human geography field courses, and carry out a human geography dissertation. These are the key features that distinguish them from the BSc Geography programmes.

3. Educational Aims of the Programme

The programme is intended to show Geography as a dynamic discipline concerned with processes and patterns in human and natural environments. It aims to provide you with a broad understanding of geographical aspects of human society and the physical environment and their complex interrelationships before offering you an opportunity to develop your own interests in the discipline and gain a more detailed and nuanced appreciation of a variety of specific aspects of human geography in which the discipline has specialised. Through fieldwork in human geography and other forms of experiential learning, this programme particularly aims to promote curiosity about social and cultural environments and, through a variety of pedagogies, to enable you to develop a range of skills specific to the human geographer as well as a series of cognitive, generic and transferable skills.

4. Programme Structure

5. Programme Modules

The following tables describe the programme and constituent modules. Constituent modules may be updated, deleted or replaced as a consequence of the annual programme review of this programme.

https://geography.exeter.ac.uk/newstudents/ugstreatham/

You may take optional modules as long as any necessary prerequisites have been satisfied, where the timetable allows and if you have not already taken the module in question or an equivalent module.

You may take elective modules up to 30 credits outside of the programme in each stage of the programme with permission as long as any necessary prerequisites have been satisfied, where the timetable allows and if you have not already taken the module in question or an equivalent module.

 

Stage 1

90 credits of compulsory modules, 30 credits of optional modules.

Compulsory Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
GEO1105 Geographies of Place, Identity and Culture 15No
GEO1106 Geographies of Global Change 15No
GEO1309 Study Skills for Human Geographers 15Yes
GEO1310 Geographies of Environment and Sustainability 15No
GEO1313 Learning through Place: Doing Human Geography 15No
GEO1316 Concepts in Geography 15No

Optional Modules

Option modules can be found here:

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
GeoS S1 Physical opt for BA Geog 2022-3
GEO1211 Earth System Science: The History of Our Planet 15 No
GEO1213 Earth System Science: Our Changing Planet 15 No

Stage 2

60 credits of compulsory modules, 60 credits of optional modules.

a You must choose 30-60 credits from the Human Geography and interdisciplinary Geography modules listed.

b You may then choose 0-30 credits from other level 5 Geography modules listed.

Compulsory Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
GEO2311 Ideas in Geography 15No
GEO2327 Geographies of Justice: Research Methodologies in Action 15No
GEO2329 Geographies of Consumption: Doing Human Geography Research 30No

Optional Modules

Option modules can be found here:

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
GeoS S2 Human-Inter Geog opt for BA Geog 2022-3 see note a above
GEO2131 Nature, Development and Justice 15 No
GEO2132 Global Urban Futures 15 No
GEO2136 Geographies of Migration 15 No
GEO2135 In/visible Spaces of Modern Life 15 No
GEO2137 Global Lives: Decolonial Geographies 15 No
GEO2234 The 'Anthropocene' 15 No
GEO2317 Climate Change: Science and Society 15 No
GEO2322C Nature, Environment and Sustainability Field Course 15 No
GeoS S2 Physical opt for BA Geog 2022-3 see note b above
GEO2230 Reconstructing Past Environments 15 No
GEO2232 The Cryosphere 15 No
GEO2233 Landscape Response to Environmental Change: from Source to Sink 15 No

Stage 3

30-45 credits of compulsory modules, 75-90 credits of optional modules.

c You must choose either GEO3311 or GEO3312.

Compulsory Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
GEO3311 BA Dissertation [See note c above]45Yes
GEO3312 BA Dissertation [See note c above]30No

Optional Modules

Option modules can be found here:

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
GeoS SF BA-BSc Geog opt 2022-3
GEO3101 Gender and Geography 15 No
GEO3126 The Geography of Monsters: Science, Society and Environmental Risk 15 No
GEO3129 Images of the Earth 15 No
GEO3142 Geographies of the Body 15 No
GEO3143 Experimental Geographies: Bodies, Brains, and Bombs 15 No
GEO3144 Geopolitical Cultures 15 No
GEO3145 Troubled Times and Lost Futures: Geographical Thought After Progress 15 No
GEO3146 Digital Geographies 15 No
GEO3147 Literature, Environment, Activism 15 No
GEO3223 Landscape Systems Management 15 No
GEO3225 Climate Change and its Impacts 15 No
GEO3227 Weather 15 No
GEO3230 Tropical Forests in a Changing World 15 No
GEO3239 GIS for Professionals 15 No
GEO3242 Historical, Functional and Conservation Biogeography of Plants 15 No
GEO3245 Coastal Systems in a Changing World 15 No
GEO3246 Tropical Marine Carbonate Systems: Responses to Environmental Change 15 No
GEO3148 Berlin Field Course 15 No
GEO3149 Seville Field Course 15 No
GEO3474 Environmental Futures Field Course (Freiburg/Basel) 15 No

6. Programme Outcomes Linked to Teaching, Learning and Assessment Methods

Intended Learning Outcomes
A: Specialised Subject Skills and Knowledge

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
On successfully completing this programme you will be able to:		Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be...
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class):...and evidenced by the following assessment methods:

1. Illustrate the nature of change within human and physical environments.
2. Compare the reciprocal relationships between physical and human environments.
3. Explain the significance of spatial relationships as influences upon human and physical environments.
4. Summarise the diversity and interdependence of places at various spatial scales.

In Stage 1, primarily through tutorials, compulsory modules and through subject-based learning in human geography modules. In Stage 2, through research training (research methods and research), tutorials and through subject-based learning in human geography modules Implicitly through lectures, seminars and directed study in the context of a variety specific topic-based option modules in all Stages.


ILO 1 Explicitly through coursework and examinations in compulsory modules and throughout other module based assessments in Stages 2 and 3 (depending on options taken).

ILOs 2-3 Much of Stage 1 is explicitly interdisciplinary, as are a number of option modules in Stages 2 and 3. These modules are assessed against student’s understanding about interconnections through a variety of assessments.

ILO 4 This is assessed in the option Stage 3 field course and through a variety of assessments associated with topic-based modules.

Intended Learning Outcomes
B: Academic Discipline Core Skills and Knowledge

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
On successfully completing this programme you will be able to:		Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be...
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class):...and evidenced by the following assessment methods:

5. Evaluate the diversity of approaches to the generation of knowledge and understanding deriving from experience of the epistemologies of the social and natural sciences.
6. Identify geographical concepts in different situations.
7. Apply ideas to new situations and with a systematic approach to accuracy, precision and uncertainty.

Explicitly introduced as a concept in Stage 1 compulsory modules, and later in Stage 2 research training modules. Expanded through subject-based learning in optional modules in Stages 2 and 3, including the option field course at Stage 3. Applied by student in independent dissertation.

ILO 5 Coursework in research training modules at Stage 2 and an option field course module and the dissertation at Stage 3.

ILO 6 Field class training and through a variety of assessments in all modules in all Stages.

ILO 7 Explicitly assessed in project work in Stage 1 and applied and assessed in the dissertation.

Intended Learning Outcomes
C: Personal/Transferable/Employment Skills and Knowledge

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
On successfully completing this programme you will be able to:		Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be...
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class):...and evidenced by the following assessment methods:

8. Evaluate the issues involved in applying research design and execution skills within the specific context of primary research.
9. Evaluate the diversity of specialised approaches to, and techniques of, collecting, analysing and presenting information in Human Geography.
10. Synthesise information and recognise relevance, develop a sustained and reasoned argument, and evaluate and articulate weaknesses in the arguments of others.
11. Communicate ideas, principles and theories effectively and fluently by written, oral and visual means in a manner appropriate to the intended audience.
12. Illustrate and discuss the contested and provisional nature of knowledge and understanding and articulate and communicate teaching/learning methods and strategies.
13. Identify, formulate and evaluate questions or problems, and identify and evaluate approaches to problem-solving.
14. Use C&IT tools effectively and appropriately to select, analyse, present and communicate geographical information, effectively and appropriately interpret and use numerical statistical information, and apply basic and more advanced numerical skills effectively and appropriately to geographical information.

Personal transferable employment skills and knowledge are embedded in all modules. Stage 2 modules are strongly focused towards developing skills for use in the dissertation and in real life situations. Explicitly through directed practical exercises in Stage 1 and 2 research training modules; in field courses in Stages 1 and 3, and in dissertation supervisions in Stage 3. Implicitly through lectures, seminars and directed study in specific topic-based option modules in all Stages. Applied in self-directed dissertation.

ILO 8 Coursework in modules focusing on research training and fieldwork and the dissertation.

ILO 9 Data analysis methods are explicitly assessed in Stage 1 and 2 research training modules, and implicitly in option modules in all Stages.

ILO 10 Through a variety of assessments in all modules in all Stages.

ILO 11 Through a variety of assessments in all modules in all Stages.

ILO 12 Through critical writing tasks assessed in a range of modules through Stages 2 and 3 and in the dissertation.

ILO 13 Explicitly through coursework in Stage 1 and 2 research training and fieldwork based modules and the dissertation.

ILO 14 Explicitly in coursework for research training modules in Stages 1 and 2.

7. Programme Regulations

Classification

Full details of assessment regulations for all taught programmes can be found in the TQA Manual, specifically in the Credit and Qualifications Framework, and the Assessment, Progression and Awarding: Taught Programmes Handbook. Additional information, including Generic Marking Criteria, can be found in the Learning and Teaching Support Handbook.

8. College Support for Students and Students' Learning

All students in Geography are allocated Personal Tutors who monitor and advise you on your academic progress and performance throughout your degree programme. Each Personal Tutor keeps a record of your performance which culminates in a detailed record of achievement which is used, in addition to formal assessments, to help inform personal references requested by prospective employers. Personal Tutors provide pastoral oversight for non-academic problems (advising students as necessary on the availability of appropriate specialist and professional assistance)..

In addition, you take a compulsory, mainly tutorial-based, 15-credit Level 4 module on ‘Study Skills for Human Geography’ (GEO1309). This module aims to a) raise your awareness of the role you must yourself play in the learning process, b) facilitate your development as an independent learner, and c) direct your acquisition of a range of specialist and generic skills.

You attend University and Discipline Induction courses on arrival, and are directed to the Exeter Learning Environment (ELE) Student Portal and module ELE pages, that provide information on your teaching and learning. Student learning is supported by a wide range of discipline-specific and university learning facilities, including the University Library and IT Services.

All teaching staff maintain an two non-consecutive Office Hours per week to facilitate student access to academic support. Module staff will also outline additional means to support student learning during term time. There is  student representation at all levels in the Discipline and programme development takes place with explicit consultation, notably through formal representation of students on the Discipline Education Committee.

9. University Support for Students and Students' Learning

Please refer to the University Academic Policy and Standards guidelines regarding support for students and students' learning.

10. Admissions Criteria

Undergraduate applicants must satisfy the Undergraduate Admissions Policy of the University of Exeter.

Postgraduate applicants must satisfy the Postgraduate Admissions Policy of the University of Exeter.

Specific requirements required to enrol on this programme are available at the respective Undergraduate or Postgraduate Study Site webpages.

11. Regulation of Assessment and Academic Standards

Each academic programme in the University is subject to an agreed College assessment and marking strategy, underpinned by institution-wide assessment procedures.

The security of assessment and academic standards is further supported through the appointment of External Examiners for each programme. External Examiners have access to draft papers, course work and examination scripts. They are required to attend the Board of Examiners and to provide an annual report. Annual External Examiner reports are monitored at both College and University level. Their responsibilities are described in the University's code of practice. See the University's TQA Manual for details.

(http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/admin/staff/qualityassuranceandmonitoring/tqamanual/fullcontents/)

12. Indicators of Quality and Standards

 

13. Methods for Evaluating and Improving Quality and Standards

The University and its constituent Colleges review the quality and standard of teaching and learning in all taught programmes against a range of criteria through the procedures outlined in the Teaching Quality Assurance (TQA) Manual Quality Review Framework.

14. Awarding Institution

University of Exeter

15. Lead College / Teaching Institution

Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy (ESE)

16. Partner College / Institution

Partner College(s)

Not applicable to this programme

Partner Institution

Not applicable to this programme.

17. Programme Accredited / Validated by

0

18. Final Award

BA (Hons) Geography

19. UCAS Code

L705

20. NQF Level of Final Award

6 (Honours)

21. Credit

CATS credits ECTS credits

22. QAA Subject Benchmarking Group

[Honours] Geography

23. Dates

Origin Date

22/03/2012

 Date of last revision

25/08/2022