Program Overview

Geography with a Language

Overview

Geography at Queen's is ranked 8th in the UK for Graduate Prospects (Complete University Guide 2025). This degree provides students with the opportunity to study for one additional year overseas, and provides enhanced language teaching to support this. In addition to their core geography modules, students are free to choose thematic modules from across the geography programme, which may include human and physical geography.

Course Structure

• Year 1: Students must take four core modules within Geography: Human Geography: Society, Economy and Population, Physical Geography: Earth, Fire and Ice, Human Geography: Society, Power and Culture, and Physical Geography: Earth, Wind and Water. Students must then take a double-weighted Language module from: French I or Spanish I.
• Year 2: Students must take three core modules within Geography: Contemporary Approaches to Geographical Enquiry, Geographical Research Skills, and Landscapes and Geographical Information (GIS). Students must then take a double-weighted Language module from: French II or Spanish II. Students must then take one further module. Typical options include: Cultural and Political Geography, Geographies of Economic Restructuring and Social Change, Geomorphology, Global Environmental Change, and International Fieldwork.
• Year 3: Students spend a year at their host institution, studying geography in the host language (Spanish or French). Assessment is through a combination of placement-based assignments (set by the hosting institution) three reflective diary entries (two of which should be in the host language) and a final end-of-year report (assessed by our Geography Study Abroad co-ordinator).
• Year 4: Students must take one (double-weighted) core module, selecting from: Geography Dissertation or Geography at Work. Students must then take a further four modules. Typical options (which may vary from year to year) include: Advanced GIS, Climate Change, Coastal Environments, Environmental Geopolitics, Geoforensics, Geographies of Contested Territories, Geographies of Ethnicity, Geography, Science and Society, Maps and Mappings, Sea Level Change: Past, Present, and Future, Spaces of Urbanisation in Emerging Economies and Sustainable Development, and Geographies of Outer Space.

Entry Requirements

• A-level requirements: BBB normally including A-level Geography + GCSE Mathematics grade C/4. For French option: A-level French grade B. For Spanish option: A-level Spanish grade B.
• Irish leaving certificate requirements: H3H3H3H3H4H4/H3H3H3H3H3 normally including Higher Level grade H3 in Geography + if not offered at Higher Level then Ordinary Level grade O4 in Mathematics. For French option: Higher Level grade H3 in French. For Spanish option: Higher Level grade H3 in Spanish.
• Access Course: Not normally considered as Access Courses would not satisfy language requirements.
• International Baccalaureate Diploma: 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 at Higher Level (Including French or Spanish and normally Geography at Higher level) + If not offered at Higher Level/GCSE, then Standard Level grade 4 in Mathematics.

Tuition Fees

• Northern Ireland (NI): £4,855
• Republic of Ireland (ROI): £4,855
• England, Scotland or Wales (GB): £9,535
• EU Other: £25,300
• International: £25,300

Additional Course Costs

• In Year 1 students can be expected to contribute up to £100 to the cost of an overnight field course in Fermanagh.
• In Year 2 students have an opportunity to take an optional field-based module. Students who enrol in these modules are liable to pay additional costs to cover flights, accommodation and local transport. The cost is typically between £400-500.

Career Prospects

• Studying for a Geography degree at Queen's develops core skills and employment-related experiences that are valued by employers, professional organisations and academic institutions.
• Some graduates pursue careers in geography-related areas such as urban and rural planning, environmental conservation and management, careers in GIS and teaching.
• A significant number develop careers in a wide range of other sectors, e.g. management, marketing, NGOs, financial services, the civil service (especially land and property, environment, and development agencies), computing (especially using geographic data), and various graduate programmes.

Modules

• Human Geography: Society, Economy and Population: This course will address central themes connected with social, economic and population geography.
• Earth Systems: This physical geography module will examine the mechanisms and processes that drive the Earth system and the interactions between the various spheres.
• Human Geography: Society, Power and Culture: The twenty-first century world that we all inhabit and its 'human geographies' is not just a product of the 'modern age'.
• French 1: This module aims to consolidate and develop the students existing written and oral language skills and knowledge of French and Francophone culture.
• Spanish 1: This module aims to consolidate and expand on existing Spanish language competency by developing written and oral language skills, knowledge of Spanish and Latin American culture, and grammatical proficiency.
• Environmental Change: past, present and future: This module provides an introduction to the principles and techniques used to reconstruct past environments and detect environmental change mostly during the last 2.6 million years, the Quaternary.
• Spanish 2: Building on skills acquired at Level 1, this module aims to develop more advanced language skills in spoken and written language.
• Geography and Employability: This module centres upon a research project devised to the specification of an external employer.
• Geographical Research Skills: This module is designed to equip students with a broad set of research skills designed to enable students to become more independent researchers and to tackle research projects in their final year.
• Contemporary Approaches to Geographical Enquiry: This module examines the key theoretical debates which underpin contemporary approaches to research in human and physical Geography.
• French 2: Course contents: Building on skills acquired at Level 1, this module aims to consolidate productive (writing and speaking) and receptive (reading and listening) skills in French language.
• Landscapes and Geographical Information (GIS): This module explores the multifaceted nature of landscape through the use and application of spatial technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), including Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and remote sensing such as aerial and satellite imagery.
• Space, Culture and Mobility (Fieldwork): Cultural, historical and political geographies form the basis of this module, the field course element of which is located in Malta.
• Urban Landscapes (Fieldwork): Europe’s towns and cities are in a constant state of flux, and have been for millennia.
• Exploring Dynamic Environments (Fieldwork): In this field course you will explore a variety of contrasting landscapes within the Mediterranean, with particular reference to Mallorca, researching the human and physical dynamics that have shaped them.
• Geomorphology: The interaction of geological drivers, surface processes, and climate dynamics are all crucial for explaining why the Earth’s surface looks and operates the way it does.
• Cultural and Political Geography: This module explores key concepts in cultural and political geography.
• Global Environmental Change: The module will focus on the nature, causes and consequences of environmental change.
• Eras SGAP Full Year: None
• Geography At Work: This module centres upon a research project devised to the specification of an external employer.
• Geography Dissertation: This module requires students to write a dissertation that is based on substantive individual research on a geographical topic of the student’s choice.
• Ice Cold Environments: The cryosphere contains the parts of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form.
• Remaking Cities: Comparative Urban Research: Who holds political power in cities, and how do they use it to remake them?
• Spaces of neoliberalism and inequalities: The world of information technologies (IT) has changed our relations to space.
• Health Geography: The module provides a theoretical and practical background to the geographical study of health.
• Health, Environment and Climate Change: The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that 23% of all global deaths are linked to the environment, that equates to roughly 12.6 million deaths per year.
• Environmental Geopolitics: Since the end of the Cold War, environmental issues have become one of the most important considerations in global politics.
• Geography, Science and Society: The history of European imperialism is firmly back on the cultural agenda.
• Spaces of Urbanisation in Emerging Economies and Sustainable Development: This module is designed to encourage you to expand your basic knowledge of the emerging process of regional urban transformation in the Emerging Economies.
• Geographical Independent Research Essay: This module requires students to write a final report that is based on individual research on a geographical topic of the student’s choice.
• Geoforensics: The module covers the application of geoscience to criminal investigations.
• Sustaining the Biosphere: This module will provide a geographical perspective to the concepts of biodiversity and sustainability and will explore the physical processes and human factors which underlie the debate around these concepts.