Geography with International Year Abroad BSc (Hons)

Teaching

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help you to flourish and be successful.

You are taught through a diverse range of teaching methods, including, interactive workshops, lectures, seminars, fieldwork and laboratory practical activities. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures. Laboratory practical act are focused on developing subject specific skills and applied individual and group project work.

The university is a close-knit community and we adopt very personal approach with an open-door policy allowing you easy access to teaching staff who will offer advice and feedback on your assessed work. You will be assigned a Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) who will support your academic progress and will assist you with any issues throughout your time at the university.

During your year abroad, you will enjoy the diverse learning opportunities of your host institution, as well as the cultural and travel opportunities of your year abroad destination. You will be in regular contact with your personal academic tutors throughout the year.

Contact time

In a typical week, you will have approximately 12-16 contact hours of teaching. The exact contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected. In the final year, you will normally have slightly less contact time in order carry out more independent study.

The type of teaching activities varies per module, but an example of teaching activities for a first year module for one semester are as follows:

• 20 hours of (large group) lectures
• 8 hours of interactive workshops
• 8 hours of computer practicals
• 4 hours of supervised laboratory practical
• 4 hours of fieldwork activities
• 4 hours of seminars

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 25 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes professors in human and physical geography, senior academics with industry experience, demonstrators and technicians.

Postgraduate research students who have undertaken teacher training may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and a very high percentage (85+%) of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.  You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments, which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include written examinations and a range of coursework assessments such as essays, written assignments (including consultancy reports and planning statements), journals, practical investigations, practical reports, portfolios, individual and groups presentations, posters, and a final year independent studies project.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken. You will not be expected to complete all assignments list below (i.e. the exact pattern of assignments depends on your optional modules); however, a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

• 2 Essays
• 1 Field Notebook
• 1 Portfolio
• 2 Poster Presentations
• 2 Presentations
• 1 Reflective writing assignment
• 1 Report
• 2 Research/Practical write ups
• 2 Written assignments

Year 2

• 1 Essay
• 1 Exam
• 1 Individual or Group Presentation
• 1 Poster Presentation
• 1 Reflective writing assignment
• 1 Report
• 2 Research/Practical write ups
• 1 Written Assignment
• 1 Other (Hydrometric Network Design)

Year 4

• 1 Fieldwork Portfolio
• 2 Other (Dissertation & Mock-interview)
• 1 Presentation
• 2 Reflective writing assignment
• 2 Report
• 1 Research/Practical write ups
• 2 Written Assignment

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest specification for BSc Geography that includes BSc Geography with International Year Abroad.