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Geographical Information Science MSc

Geographical Information Science MSc

Different course options

Full time | University of Leicester | 1 year | 22-SEP-25

Study mode

Full time

Duration

1 year

Start date

22-SEP-25

Key information
DATA SOURCE : IDP Connect

Qualification type

MSc - Master of Science

Subject areas

Geography Information Work / Information Use Geographical Information Systems

Course type

Taught

Course Summary

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.

Modules

This module focuses on the programming language R as an effective tool for data science. R is one of the most widely used programming languages, and it provides access to a vast repository of programming libraries, which cover all aspects of data science from data wrangling to statistical analysis, from machine learning to data visualisation. That includes a variety of libraries for processing spatial data, perform geographic information analysis, and create maps. As such, R is an extremely versatile, free and opensource tool in geographic information science, which combines the capabilities of traditional GIS software with the advantages of a scripting language, and an interface to a vast array of algorithms.
Dissertation - Core

Tuition fees

UK fees
Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

£10,950

International fees
Course fees for EU and international students

For this course (per year)

£23,650

Entry requirements

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

University information

The University of Leicester has a distinguished history of excellence in education for more than a hundred years. It has been a crucible in which great minds and mentors have come together to break new ground, develop fresh ideas and invent useful methods of understanding the world. Research has always been a driving force behind the university’s success, and Leicester’s postgraduate community engages with some of the most significant social,...more