Global Development and Sustainability

This degree is designed to give you the skills and knowledge you’ll need to analyse contemporary global challenges from both a scientific and a social scientific perspective.

In core modules, you’ll learn principles in human and physical geography and you’ll apply these to examine sustainable development challenges and opportunities in a range of global contexts. Key case studies are particularly drawn from staff expertise in the UK, Europe, South Asia and North America.

You’ll be able to choose optional modules in your second and final years, enabling you to specialise and develop your own interests. International field trips and a work placement give you the opportunity to develop practical, transferable graduate skills that are applicable to a variety of careers.

Year one
You’ll develop a foundational knowledge of the social and environmental processes that shape global development and sustainability challenges, and you’ll acquire the basic geographical skills needed to examine and analyse these issues.

Year two
You’ll develop more specialist knowledge and skills in topics and research methods relevant to a range of professional careers. In the spatial development planning module, you’ll work on a research project where you’ll apply your growing mastery of your subject to real-world problems and issues. You’ll also start to plan for your career options, with opportunities to undertake a work placement.

The optional field trip to the Indian Himalayas offers a unique opportunity to explore development and sustainability themes in a highly dynamic real-world context. On this trip, you’ll examine environmental hazards (such as soil erosion, flooding, landslides and air pollution), community disaster resilience, urban development, wellbeing and social inequalities, and the legacy of colonialism. Please note that some of our field trips may incur an additional expense on top of your course fees.

An optional Professional Placement Year between your second and final years gives you the opportunity to gain relevant and valuable experience in the workplace.

Year three
In your final year, you’ll complete an independent research project that will enable you to demonstrate both the academic and transferable skills that you’ve acquired on the course.

An optional field trip to Barcelona allows you to specialise in either human geography or physical geography and environmental management by studying topics such as urban development, wildfires and cascading hazards, social inequalities, urban sustainability policies, coastal erosion, nationalism and independence movements, heat waves, Olympic legacies or urban flood risks.

You’ll experience a variety of assessment methods throughout your degree. These include essays, project reports, presentations, posters, video-clips, field-craft assessments, reflective items, time-constrained tests and examinations. These are designed to give you a rich and diverse skill-set, and be of real benefit in pursuit of your chosen career.

You’ll be taught in lectures, workshops and seminars, with small groups that enable discussion and collaborative learning. You’ll learn in the classroom, lab and outdoors, with fieldwork on campus and at locations across the UK and overseas.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

As part of your degree, you could study abroad on a placement at one of Bath Spa’s partner universities.

Fieldwork is an integral part of our Global Development and Sustainability programme as it provides you with the opportunities to learn hands-on skills with real-world applications.

Optional international residential field trip opportunities are provided in both the second and third year of the degree. Our current destinations are Northern India (second year) and Barcelona (third year).

Within modules you'll also undertake fieldwork in the local area including on our beautiful Newton Park campus, as well as in locations such as the Mendip Hills, the Somerset Levels, the Royal Geographical Society in London and the Jurassic Coast of Dorset.

Please note that you will have to make a financial contribution towards residential field trips.

You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a work placement in your second year and a community engagement placement in your final year, as well as the option to undertake a professional placement year between your second and final year. Students have worked with local organisations such as Ripple Effect, local planning authorities, environmental organisations and the National Trust.

Guest speakers from industry and previous graduates contribute to the learning experience throughout the course. This insightful engagement with potential employers will help you make those all-important career decisions when you graduate.

There are prizes awarded each year in recognition of excellence in the core modules. This culminates with the Excellence in Global Development and Sustainability Prize, recognising the best overall performance in the compulsory modules in the final year of study.

This degree can prepare you for a diverse range of careers in sectors such as research, consultancy, development practice, business, education, humanitarian response, government, non-government organisations (NGOs), charities or policy reform. The course also provides you with the knowledge and skills needed to progress to postgraduate study in related areas such as development, sustainability, disaster risk, climate change adaptation or environmental management.

Whatever your aspirations, our aim is that the real-world experience you gain on this course will set you up to take on diverse challenges, and to thrive in doing so.

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student starting your first year at Bath Spa University, you can apply for the Certificate in Global Citizenship, which you’ll study alongside your degree.

You’ll gain global awareness and add an international dimension to your student experience, and funding is available. On successful completion of the programme, you’ll be awarded a Certificate in Global Citizenship. This is in addition to your degree; it doesn’t change your degree title or results.

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

You’ll be taught using our specialist facilities on our Newton Park campus in Bath as well as at field sites around the South West region and overseas.

• Lectures, seminars and workshops
  Teaching takes place in lecture and seminar rooms on our beautiful Newton Park campus including in the Commons building.
• Laboratories
  We have a number of well-equipped and recently refurbished laboratories dedicated to a variety of analytical applications spanning audio-visual data, soils/water/air and microfossils, to name a few.
• On-campus fieldwork
  Our location at Newton Park, nestled in a parkland valley setting just outside Bath, is a beautiful and unique 'natural laboratory' in which to pursue environmental education. Make the most of this setting by studying environmental processes on-site including at our stream gauging station and instrumented landslide complex.
• Off-campus field sites
  Day trips provide real-world learning opportunities in locations such as the Mendip Hills, the Somerset Levels, the Royal Geographical Society in London and the Jurassic Coast of Dorset. Optional international field trips provide the chance to visit India and Spain.
• Online research lecture series
  Participate in the online research lecture series organised by our Hazard, Risk and Disaster Research Group. This series provides an opportunity to engage with leading research from all over the world specialising in topics such as natural hazards, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
• Library
• Commons building
• Virtual Learning Environment
• Specialist resources and dedicated Subject Librarian
• Writing and Learning Centre
• English Language Unit.

You’ll benefit from our excellent resources including laboratories, stock apparatus, field tools, and a suite of IT hardware/software, all supported by a highly-skilled team of technicians. Our key areas of capability are:

• Audio-visual data capture/field presentation including cameras, dictaphones and mobile projectors.
• Monitoring of environmental parameters including noise, light, air/gas, pH, particulates, water, metals, and volatiles; using dissolved oxygen and conductivity probes, flow meters, an atomic absorption spectrometer, a gas chromatogram, and a scanning spectrophotometer.
• Hydro-meteorological monitoring including Automatic Weather Stations, temperature/humidity loggers, anemometers, infiltrometers, and dip meters.
• Survey and analysis. Hardware comprising Total Stations, Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS), differential and handheld GPS and UAV. Software including ArcGIS Pro and Nvivo.
• Microfossil analysis using type collections and microscopes.
• Soil/sediment analysis using furnaces/ovens, particle size sieving, soil augers/corers.