It's an exciting time to study Human Geography at the University of Hertfordshire, as space and place has become locally, regionally, nationally, and supra-nationally contested throughout the world. You’ll investigate a range of fascinating topics, including population change and migration, geopolitical conflicts and issues, socio-spatial inequalities, and solutions to urban and rural challenges. 

You’ll learn from research and teaching staff who work on future mobilities and living labs. You’ll study migration pathways and gateway towns. Our staff are experts in fields such as demographics, marginalisation, planning and urbanism.  

You’ll investigate planned settlements, contested spaces and places, and consider the role that political and economic geography can play to help you understand society better.  

You’ll kick start your first year with a trip to the Lake District, learning how to think geographically and collect and analyse field data. You’ll learn about the approaches geographers take towards governing and planning human spaces. How do they manage conflict within these spaces? How do human geographers, environmentalists and physical geographers work together? You’ll enjoy a blend of all Geography pathways and explore how they interlink in everyday life.   

In your second year, you'll take another trip, this time to Switzerland. Here you’ll explore their unique urban, rural and physical landscapes, from rivers and glaciers to settlements and alpine communities. You’ll explore exclusion and marginalisation from a uniquely European perspective. And of course, as the world continues to digitalise, so do geographers. You'll enhance your cartographical and GIS skills to visualise data and learn to generate maps. 

Between your second and final year, you can add an optional year to study abroad or do a work placement, or you can continue directly into your final year. You could gain work experience to enhance your CV and improve your chance of a better degree classification. Or you can spend a year abroad at one of our partner universities around the world, gaining international experience, invaluable as you prepare to enter the global economy upon graduation. Recent year abroad locations include  Canada, USA, Hawaii, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.   

In your final year, you’ll follow your passion. You’ll explore what matters to you.  Immerse yourself in a project of your choosing. You could focus on the history of state formation and border disputes in a particular region. Or maybe you have an interest in urban regeneration and its link to crime. This is your chance to undertake your own research to investigate and critically engage with the world around you.   

Work placement

Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.  

This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought after professional skills.  

Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process.

If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it. 

What's next for my career?

Geography graduates are highly sought after in a wide range of professions.

Our graduates have found successful careers in the following sectors:

• Civil Service
• Housing Associations
• Transport operatives
• Local Government
• Planning and regeneration
• National Park services
• Graduate recruitment schemes
• Postgraduate study

Graduate may like to consider further study for example in the University of Hertfordshire's MSc courses in Sustainable Planning

Our graduates are highly sought after in a wide range of professions within local government, the civil service, town and country planning, regeneration, housing, recreational management, transport and travel planning, environmental resources management and teaching. Our graduates also join more general graduate recruitment schemes and go on to postgraduate study.