Graduation and beyond
After Graduation - employment
The strength and prestige of our degrees are recognised by a wide spectrum of employers who view graduates of our School as well-qualified scientists who possess excellent personal and transferable skills profiles such as numeracy, communication and teamworking. Furthermore, our graduates are seen as having a greater degree of independence and self-reliance than any comparable graduates.
After Graduation - further study
Whether they take a three- or four-year undergraduate degree, those students who wish to develop their future careers as professional Earth or marine scientists at a research level usually go to secure a postgraduate qualification first degree upon completion of their first degree. This second degree can either be in the form of a one-year research Master's course (MSc or MRes) or a three-year doctoral degree (PhD). In contrast to the undergraduate degree, funding is often available for postgraduate degrees - which covers living costs as well as tuition fees. A first degree is the normal qualification for enrollment on an MSc, which is a focussed, subject-specific course and usually encompasses a component of formal teaching and a research project (often up to six months long). 
Subjects studied can include any of the following: environmental sciences, water quality management, environmental resource management, environmental coastal engineering, exploration geophysics, seismology, fisheries, marine pollution, remote sensing, hydrogeology, mining geology, mineral resources, engineering geology and education. The research for a PhD will normally take three to four years, and is usually the preferred qualification for careers in research, much government science, and many large multinational companies. A four-year undergraduate Master's degree is now seen as almost as the essential starting point for a PhD, or via a three-year BSc degree supplemented by an appropriate MSc course - few students now secure places on PhDs direct from a BSc.
The vocational elements of our courses mean that a degree is your passport to discipline-related fields within government agencies, conservation and environmental agencies, coastal management and geophysical survey companies, meteorology, to the major oil and mining companies, geological service companies, local authorities, museums, civil engineering and the construction industry and water boards, through to Universities and allied research institutes.
However, given the personal and transferable skills profiles you will develop at the School, there are considerable employment opportunities not only in areas relating to your degree specialisations, but also in many other areas ranging from accountancy, computer programming, law, management, marketing, retail, the police force and the armed services.
We pride ourselves in the quality of the graduate students that we produce and given our national standing, it is our experience that all of our well qualified graduates are able to progress into a career of direct relevance to their training, should they so wish.
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