Curious about studying Geography - BA (Hons)at University of Leeds? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Main Site
Full Time
Sep 2026
3 Year
A degree in human geography provides the knowledge and skills to understand our rapidly changing world, including international development, population growth, urban transformation, sustainability, climate change, migration, global geopolitics, human rights, globalisation, and patterns of inequality (ethnicity, class and gender). Our graduates are in demand for both their specialist and transferable skills. Throughout this course, you’ll build skills in presenting your ideas in reports and orally, in data collection, presentation and analysis, and in the use of specialist mapping and statistical software. Each year of this programme is designed around a combination of compulsory core modules, as well as opportunities to take optional modules and discovery modules across the University so you can choose additional subjects of interest. This means you can specialise in either human or physical geography – or choose modules from a mixture of both. Broad expertise and knowledge will equip you to tackle important real-world problems in a range of organisations and sectors, from the public sector (such as working for local government), to private industry (as a retail analyst or location planner) and for non-governmental organisations (such as Amnesty International as a policy and campaigns officer). Why study at Leeds:This course is accredited by the Royal Geographical Society with IBG Our globally-renowned research at Leeds has had a pioneering impact on current global agendas in environmental protection, migration rights and policy as well as public health and the economy and feeds directly into your course, shaping what you learn with the latest thinking. This course is highly flexible so you can tailor your degree to suit your interests. You can specialise in either human geography or physical geography or opt to study a mixture of our BA and BSc modules. Experience research-led teaching delivered by a School that has taught and is made up of academics and researchers who specialise in a variety of geography disciplines. Access excellent teaching facilities, including specialist labs, a dedicated field store fully equipped with research-grade equipment and industry-standard software to support your learning and practical fieldwork. Put theory into practice with our extensive fieldwork activities, where you’ll experience ‘real world’ learning that will advance your research, project planning and teamwork skills whilst gaining hands-on experience highly valued by employers in industry. Current destinations include Wales, Sicily and Helsinki. Enhance your career prospects and give your CV that competitive edge before you graduate by undertaking a work placement. Our close industry links have given previous students the chance to work at — and build professional relationships with — organisations such as Sainsbury’s, Morgan Stanley and GlaxoSmithKline. Gain invaluable life experience and advance your personal development with our exciting study abroad programmes, spanning across many universities worldwide. Make the most of your time at Leeds by joining our student society GeogSoc which gives you the chance to meet like-minded students who share your passion for geography. The society organises a range of social activities and trips and has football and netball teams in the University’s intra-mural league. AccreditationRoyal Geographical Society (with IBG)Accreditation is the assurance that a university course meets the quality standards established by the profession for which it prepares its students. This course is accredited by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
This exciting module is a beginner’s guide to the important and rapidly changing world of geographical data analysis that blends new digital, mobile and spatial technologies with core numerical skills and conceptual understandings of how space and spatial relationships can be represented. You'll learn core practical skills essential to geography in the 21st century, including geographic information systems (computer cartography), data collection, data handling, data visualisation, hypothesis testing, statistics, analytics and mapping. It will teach you how to design online surveys and collect data using smartphones and other GPS-enabled devices, as well as the potential uses and applications of data from policing to planning, and new forms of data such as crowdsourcing. At its heart, the module seeks to give you the skills needed to make sense of the physical world by harnessing the power of geographic data.
This module focuses on the major environmental challenges facing humanity and the wider biosphere from both human and physical geography perspectives such as climate change and global warming, biodiversity loss and species extinction, deforestation and desertification, flooding and extreme weather, food and energy shortages, and resource and territory conflicts that generate climate refugees. You'll learn how to evaluate the range of political responses and potential solutions at different scales, assess the effectiveness of national and international environmental policies, and acquire a foundation for studying human and physical geography throughout the course.
You'll learn about the dynamic nature of urban and economic geography, exploring the geography of cities and urban settlements and their constitution by environmental, economic, social and political processes through time and space. Particular attention is paid to planetary urbanisation, urban planning, systems of collective consumption, housing and the welfare state, service and retail economy, neoliberal globalisation, post-industrial urbanism, power, austerity and contestation. Key features of the module are small group tutorials and local urban fieldwork.
This module provides you with a suite of insights, skills and experiences that will better prepare you for how to use your geography degree in your future career. This includes: developing a professional CV; what to expect at graduate scheme selection days; understanding how the diverse skills possessed by geographers can be most effectively presented to employers; enhanced understanding of the range of employment and other opportunities available to geographers, and how geographical skills can be used effectively in a diversity of workplaces; gaining familiarity with the process of searching, applying and interviewing for a graduate job; and an opportunity to demonstrate skills possessed by geographers whilst undertaking an applied role-playing project and associated pitch presentation.
This is an essential training programme for human geography students in the fundamentals of devising, conducting and writing up qualitative research so that you're equipped to conduct your own final year independent research project. You'll first learn about the core ideas and scientific approaches underpinning human geography and be trained in the key skills of compiling, summarising and critically analysing different literatures and data sources. This is followed by training in research design, methodology and a variety of qualitative research methods before putting them into practice through conducting fieldwork, data collection, and data analysis in a research team.
This module provides human geography students with essential training in quantitative analysis such as social data statistics, spatial data analysis and the theory behind Geographical Information Systems (GIS). You'll develop advanced skills in collecting, summarising, and manipulating data as well as exploring spatial data relationships through overlay analysis, sieve mapping, cluster analysis and classification, heatmaps, spatial trends, data projections, network analyses, digital elevation models, and regression. This will be complemented by exploring the potential uses and applications of spatial data through site and location suitability analyses.
This module forms the pinnacle of your degree: a 10,000-word thesis based on an independent research project that is focused on a specific problem or question that you have devised. You'll successfully plan, implement, and write up an individual research project on a human geography topic of choice. Doing a dissertation introduces you to the practicalities of doing research, from coming up with a topic, thinking about aims and objectives, planning and working through the different elements of your research (theoretical, empirical, analytical), and writing up your findings. You'll develop a broad range of skills including general communication, writing and project management skills, subject-specific skills, methodological skills that may include primary and/or secondary data collection, and various data analysis skills. You'll be following a very similar process to the one that academics undertake when conducting research and writing books, reports or papers for journals.
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