Welcome to Geography at UCC
Without geography we are lost – lost to where we are and what the world is, lost on how the world works – human, environmental and physical and lost in how to understand and engage with the world’s challenges including conflict, environmental degradation, climate change, migration, urbanization, global inequality, loss of biodiversity and many others.
Without geography we are lost to understanding the spatial and temporal linkages that permeate the world from the micro to the global scale and beyond, we are also lost to understanding the Earth below us, the sky above us and the seas and oceans around us and that we live on a very thin and dynamic skin at the interface between all three.
Geography is fundamentally about where we are and where everything is, how it got there, stays there or moves or changes over time and what processes drive these distributions and what features occur because of these processes.
Geography helps us to understand this world around us, our place in it, how we affect nature and in turn nature affects us, how we need to understand the past, manage the present better and plan for the future.
Through the many modules offered by the Geography Department we will explore together many different geographies of the Earth and our role in it and eventually we will no longer be lost.
Along this journey we will learn many skills in field work, in laboratory work, in computer work, in critical thinking and analysis, in problem solving, in academic writing and others all of which will give us the tools to make the world a better and more sustainable place for all.
Whether you have studied geography before or are approaching it as a new area of study, we hope that during your time here you will become as enthusiastic about the geographies of the world as we are.
Our staff are engaged with research that connects to many pressing issues related to climate change, biodiversity, inclusion and diversity, social and spatial inequalities, migration and geopolitics, among others, and are actively involved in shaping geographical debates in these areas. The geography department values diversity. Our departmental team consists of people with diverse circumstances, and caring responsibilities, including those who have had career breaks or work part-time. We value diverse career trajectories and are committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusion within all our departmental activities.
Our faculty are engaged in a variety of local, national, and international research projects with collaborations within the department, across disciplines within UCC, as well as with several external partners at various higher education institutes, research institutes, and industry organisations. Our grant portfolio includes projects supported by the Irish Research Council, COST, Horizon 2020, Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, Environmental Protection Agency, Met Éireann, Teagasc, the Marine Institute, and the EU Regional Development Fund through INTEREG, as well as other funding agencies. We have published widely with award winning books and atlases, international peer-review articles, and local policy documents that communicate our research to stakeholders.
We engage with the wider UCC community through collaborations with a number of interdisciplinary research centres and institutes, including the Environmental Research Institute (ERI), the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), the Future Humanities Institute (FHI) and MAREI.
We are committed to field-based, research-led and student-centred teaching and learning. Our programmes reflect our research expertise, and we train students at the crossroads of GIScience, Human Geography, and Physical Geography. Our programme uses enquiry-based and active approaches to teaching and learning to assist students to develop their own knowledge of a range of social and environmental challenges. Our aim is to enable students to have the chance to cultivate new skills to analyse environmental issues, communicate their impacts and offer sensitive solutions to manage the complex transitions ahead of us. We are committed to education for sustainable development and align our teaching, learning and research activities with the UN sustainable development goals.
At undergraduate level, the department is involved in several undergraduate streams in the university. Geography is one of the most popular subjects in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies (CACSSS), with 250 students enrolled in our first-year programme. Within the BA and BA (International), students can take Geography as a major, joint, or minor honours subject. The department is a core contributor to the BSc Geosciences degree with Geology and also contributes to teaching in a number of other degree streams including Environmental Science in BEES (Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences). Geography also contributes electives to several programmes across the university including digital arts and humanities and public health.
At postgraduate level, the department has multiple postgraduate programmes. The MSc in Applied Coastal and Marine Management focuses on the science of management and policymaking in the coastal and marine spheres. Related to this is the PG Dip in MetOcean Data for Offshore Wind funded by Skillsnet, the MSc in Geoinformatics explores the theory and uses of geographic information systems and science (GIS) and remote sensing, and applies novel spatial analysis to address a suite of geographic topics. Related to this M.Sc is the PG Cert in GIS funded by Springboard+. Moreover, Geography plays a key role in the MSc Redesigning the Post-Industrial City (RePIC), which is a two-year comprehensive masters programme aimed at responding to the challenges of post-industrial cities, delivered across eight European partners from the UNIC consortium.
Students who have previously gotten a degree can get a degree in Geography through completing the H. Dip in Geography a year programme. Through the securing of government funding including extensively subsidised fees the department hosts two additional postgraduate programmes the Diploma in GIS and the
In addition, some modules are available as stand alone micro-credits
We wish you a stimulating and enjoyable journey
in the Geography Department!
Contact Details
Address: Department of Geography,
University College Cork,
Cork.
Telephone: +353 21 490 2517/2888/2804
Fax: +353 21 427 1980
Email: geography@ucc.ie
