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The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental ScienceUndergraduate study

Careers & Employability

At the University of Southampton, we believe in providing our students with skills, experience and opportunities to help in acquiring a future career.

Through our Careers and Employability service, you are given guidance and support throughout your studies and including post-studies for up to three years after graduation.

Each faculty provides ample opportunities to get involved in a wide range of programs that can help towards gainful employment. Find out more below.

Understanding the big issues

Geographers specialise in understanding and trying to improve society’s most pressing problems. In the degree program at Southampton you will address issues such as climate change and other environmental challenges, the debt crisis, poverty and ill-health. These issues are unlikely to diminish in importance, and your skills and critical insights on these and other challenges will be globally relevant (Royal Geographical Society, An Education for Life).

A range of skills

More than any other discipline, geographers have a breadth of knowledge. At Southampton you will gain the ability to understand and use quantitative and qualitative research methods, statistics, communicate well, and think laterally across different social phenomena. This breadth of skills serves geography graduates particularly well in the marketplace.

A range of careers

Our graduates are employed across an impressively wide range of fields. Many have forged careers in environmental agencies, law, education, management consultancy, town and country planning, the financial sector, and public administration. Some become police officers, and even comedians.

The most employable degree

The dynamism of a geography degree is sought-after by employers. In fact, a 2010 poll of over 200,000 graduates from UK universities found that those with geography degrees had the lowest rate of unemployment six months after graduation of any discipline polled, bar none (Higher Education Career Services Unit). This is especially true at Southampton, which is consistently a top performer amongst leading geography programs on employability.

In summary, Geography and Environmental Science at Southampton will set you up to enter the world of work even in challenging economic times.

A geographer uses a specialist tool in a body of water
Working for the environment
Photo of Amy Flavell
The mixed skills that I developed from my Southampton Geography degree were invaluable in helping me secure a place on the scheme. By offering a varied and challenging degree, it provided me with the mix of technical, critical and inter-personal skills required to succeed in a global organisation.
Amy Flavell

Key facts

96% of Southampton geography graduates are employed or in further study six months after graduation - DLHE 2016/17

Where are they now?

Find out more about our Alumni students

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