Geographical Information Science MSc

Course description

Geographic Information (GI) plays an increasingly important role in many areas of our lives: environmental protection, business and marketing, communications, forecasting, modelling, agriculture, and local and regional planning.

Understanding GI systems (the software tools) and GI science (the technical discipline) is essential for effective management and analysis of spatial data. Working alongside industry partners, the course comprises four core modules plus four option modules (selected from a larger pool) and a dissertation.

You will learn key skills in: using a range of GI software; scientific programming; dealing with the growth in data from social media and the internet; and, analysing spatial data in the broader context of data science. Alongside the core modules, you’ll have the opportunity to specialise in areas such as environmental health, remote sensing and earth observation, visualisation, and field data capture.

Teaching and learning

Teaching includes lectures, seminars, self-paced learning, directed reading and practicals. Assessment is a mixture of coursework and exams. Your dissertation will be assessed separately.

Careers and employability

You have the option of choosing to study this course 'with industry' in which a paid industrial placement forms part of your course, including your overall assessment through reflective learning. Whether or not you opt for the 'with industry' variant of the course, it is designed to give you the tools to work towards a career in a wide variety of fields in the engineering and technical industries.

Students need to have 2:2 degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject and/or several years' appropriate professional experience.