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Undergraduate Study

 

Geography at Cambridge is the study of some of the biggest challenges facing our planet, from climate emergencies to pandemics and urbanisation. 

Explore both human and physical geography.  You will have the option to specialise in one of these areas from the second year or continue with both.
 

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Overview
Number 1 in the UK for Geography (The Complete University Guide 2025)

Geography at Cambridge 

Geographers study some of the biggest challenges facing our planet. This course tackles a number of these, including: 

  • food security 
  • climate and biodiversity emergencies 
  • pandemics 
  • globalisation 
  • social inequalities 
  • urbanisation 
  • volcanoes 
  • melting ice sheets 

You do not have to choose whether to specialise in physical or human geography. If you want to, you can do both in all 3 years. 

Fieldwork is an important part of this course. It’s an enjoyable way to develop your research skills. You will go on: 

  • one-day excursions each year, depending on your choice of papers 
  • compulsory field classes of 5 to 8 days in the second year, in September or during the Easter vacation 

Recent fieldwork locations include destinations in both mainland Europe and the British Isles. We are aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of these trips.

Teaching and facilities

Teaching

We focus on delivering high quality, research-led teaching that is stimulating and challenging. This commitment to teaching has consistently been recognised by external league tables and accolades.

Facilities

Our excellent facilities include:  

  • the Geography Department Library, which contains around 20,000 books, journals and periodicals, and is also a fantastic study space 
  • physical geography labs, where you will work 
  • the Scott Polar Research Institute, where some of your teaching will take place 

You'll also have access to the impressive Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries.

Watch the video to find out what a day in the life of a Cambridge Geography student is like:

Course costs

When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).

Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students.

Find out more about general study costs.

Other additional course costs for Geography are detailed below. If you have any queries about the costs, please contact the Department.

Equipment

  • Waterproof clothing and footwear: we recommend you buy suitable clothing and footwear for field trips. This is an optional cost and how much you spend depends on personal preference.

Printing

  • The Department provides £21 of printing credit each year.

Field trips

  • Compulsory residential field trip in Year 2: students are asked to contribute about £150. This covers all transport, accommodation and meals. If there is a case of financial need then students can apply to their College for support.
  • Potential dissertation costs: you may incur costs when working on your dissertation, but the level of these will depend on your dissertation topic, and therefore your data collection/work location. Some Department support is available to support partial dissertation costs – please contact the Department for further information.

Your future career 

When you graduate you’ll be highly skilled in: 

  • dealing with complex problems 
  • information retrieval 
  • data management 
  • statistics 
  • using specialist software 

You’ll also be used to working independently and communicating efficiently.  

Our graduates enter many different careers, including: 

  • industry and commerce 
  • social enterprises and charities 
  • planning 
  • teaching 
  • finance 
  • social and community work 
  • environmental management and conservation 
  • the media 
  • politics 
  • the Civil Service
Course outline

Teaching

Teaching is provided through a mixture of lectures, practicals, laboratory work, field classes and small-group supervisions. 

You will usually have 6 to 8 lectures each week, plus reading.  

You will also have around 3 supervisions every 2 weeks, where you discuss a topic beyond the material given at lectures.  

This is usually based on reading, essay writing, preparation of presentations or answering data response questions.

Assessment

You’ll be assessed through coursework and written exams at the end of each year.

You won't usually be able to resit any of your exams.

Year 1 (Part IA) 

You’ll be introduced to key themes and issues by studying 2 core papers.  

The first core paper is People, Place and the Politics of Difference, and includes topics such as: 

  • globalisation 
  • cultural geography 
  • sustainable development 
  • historical geography 
  • urbanisation 
  • geopolitics 
  • uneven economies and inequality 
  • health and disease 

The second recent paper on Environmental Processes and Change included topics such as: 

  • tectonics and volcanism 
  • coastal processes 
  • glacial processes 
  • Quaternary climate change 
  • biogeography 
  • atmosphere and climate 

You will also go to a range of lectures and lab classes, both physical and computer-based, that will introduce you to geographical research skills across the subject.   

Year 2 (Part IB)  

You take a compulsory paper: 

  • Living with Global Change 

This paper examines key concepts and current issues in geography. It is usually based around the theme of geographical risk, but the focus varies from year-to-year. 

You also start to specialise and take 3 papers from a choice of 6.  

Papers change year-to-year. Recent examples include: 

  • Inequality 
  • Development Theories, Policies and Practices 
  • Citizenship, Cities and Civil Society 
  • Glacial Processes 
  • Biogeography 
  • Quaternary Climates and Environments 

You will also do project work involving field, lab and computer skills and techniques.  

Projects vary according to which you papers you choose. 

Everyone has to take a paper in quantitative methods. 

You will also take part in field classes of 5 to 8 days. These trips usually include a mix of different types of geography. They’ll help you to develop knowledge and skills for your dissertation.  

Year 3 (Part II) 

You can choose to specialise further or keep a balance across the subject as a whole.

You take 4 papers from a choice of 13. Papers on offer vary each year, but recent examples include:

  • Global Urbanism 
  • Work and Employment 
  • Political Ecology 
  • Biogeography 
  • Glaciology 
  • Postcolonialism and Decoloniality 
  • Geographies of the Arctic 
  • Environmental Knowledges 
  • Volcanology 
  • Legal Geographies 
  • Geographies of Food and Power 
  • Demographic Continuity and Change 
  • Life within Limits 
  • Landscape and Power 

You also submit a dissertation of 10,000 words on a topic of your choice.  

Planning for the dissertation starts in the second year. Data is usually collected in the summer between your second and third year, with analysis during the third year. 

For further information about this course and the papers you can take see the Department of Geography website

Changing course

It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply. 

In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.

You might also have to:

  • take part in an interview
  • complete an admissions test
  • produce some written work
  • achieve a particular grade in your current studies
  • do some catch-up work
  • start your new course from the beginning 

For more information visit the Department website.

You can also apply to change to:

You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you have completed one year or more of your original Cambridge course.

You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.

Entry requirements
The listed entry requirements relate to entry in 2026 or deferred entry in 2027.

Minimum offer level

A level: A*AA
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept.

Some Colleges ask for specific subjects to apply to Geography, whereas others don't.

College entry requirements

The following Colleges usually set offers at the minimum offer level and don't require any specific subjects. They may sometimes ask for higher grades or an A* in a particular subject:

  • Clare
  • Downing
  • Emmanuel
  • Fitzwilliam
  • Girton
  • Homerton
  • Hughes Hall
  • Jesus
  • King's
  • Magdalene
  • Newnham
  • Robinson
  • Sidney Sussex
  • St Catharine's 
  • St Edmund's
  • St John's
  • Trinity
  • Trinity Hall
  • Wolfson

The following Colleges require specific subjects and/or set extra conditions. For example, they may make a higher offer or specify an A* in a particular subject. For more information check the College websites:

Colleges set additional offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.

IB offers

Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.

Admission assessment

There is an admission assessment at some Colleges for this course. You do not need to register in advance.

Check the College admission assessments page for more information.

Submitted work

You won't usually be asked to submit examples of written work.

What Geography students have studied

Most Geography students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A (64% of entrants).

The majority of these students took Geography (99%).

Other common subjects were:

  • Economics
  • English (Language, Language & Literature, or Literature)
  • History
  • Mathematics
  • A science

The majority of students who studied IB achieved at least 42 points overall.

This information shows some of the common subjects our applicants have studied. Although these are common subject combinations, this doesn't mean they're favoured. 

When you're choosing your post-16 subjects, it's most important to check whether any subjects are required for your course. You can also check our guidance on choosing your high school subjects for more information.

All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.

Next steps

Find out more about Geography at Cambridge

Explore our Colleges

Visit us on an open day

Find out how to apply

Discover Uni

Discover Uni data

Contextual information

Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions.  This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.

  1. Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.

    Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data.

  2. Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes.  When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.

  3. Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data.  Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.

Key information

Minimum offer level 
A level: A*AA
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
UCAS code 
L700
Course length 
BA (Hons) 3 years full-time
Start date 
October 2026
Study at 

All Colleges except Peterhouse

Applicant numbers 
2024 cycle:
Applications per place: 4
Accepted: 101
Contact email 
undergraduate.enquiries@geog.cam.ac.uk
Contact telephone 
01223 333385