Undergraduate study: Geographical Tripos

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Introduction

The Department at Cambridge is a flourishing and expanding academic community committed to high standards of teaching and research across the whole field of Geography: our concerns and methods embrace the philosophies and techniques of the natural, social and historical sciences and also engage us with other disciplines grappling with the challenges of a changed and changing world. Geography has a long tradition at Cambridge. The first University Lecturer in Geography was appointed in 1888, the first Reader in 1898.

Teaching was initially for a special examination leading to a diploma in geography. The Geographical Tripos - the examination for a B.A. degree - was established in 1919. In 1931 the first Professor was appointed and in 1933 the Department moved into its own accommodation. That building, which now constitutes the eastern end of the Department, was considerably extended in the 1930s, with the construction of new lecture theatres and laboratories.

In the 1980s, the building was further extended with the addition of a top floor to provide a new laboratory for computing, remote sensing and geographical information systems. In 1999 the Department expanded again, to occupy two floors in an adjacent building where new laboratories, seminar rooms and offices are housed.

Since then, the Unit for Landscape Modelling has become a research unit within the Department (2000); the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure has been integrated into the teaching and research activities of the Department (2001); and the Scott Polar Research Institute has become a sub-department (2002). The Department currently has 38 academic staff including eleven Professors and four Readers.

The Department of Geography today is a flourishing and expanding academic community committed to high standards of research. The questions we ask and the philosophies and methodologies we draw upon, embrace the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. Research is represented by our main research clusters of Regional Economy and Society, Society Environment and Development, Historical and Cultural Geography; Environmental Processes, and Glacial and Quaternary Change.

In 2008, staff in the Department produced about 150 publications, and attracted research funding from a wide variety of sources. There are currently around 60 PhD students and 35 students on Masters programmes. Geography has been researched and taught at Cambridge for more than a century; during that time both the world and geography have changed immensely.

Geography at Cambridge has a remarkable tradition and also a great future. Join us – and become part of that tradition and help make the future of geography at Cambridge.

Undergraduate Studies

Each year about 100 undergraduates are admitted to the University of Cambridge to read Geography. Geography at Cambridge involves undergraduates in a wide range of lectures, practical classes and field courses, organized around a three-year course (called the Geographical Tripos) which is divided into three parts, with an examination at the end of each year. In effect, the Tripos system is a compromise between the continuous assessment favoured by some universities and the emphasis placed on ‘Finals’ by others. Each examination is self-contained, with a separate result at the end of each year: there is no averaging out at the end. This means that it is possible to combine one subject with another, because you can change Triposes between one year and another. Whether you join us for one, two or three years, direct from school or having studied part of another Cambridge Tripos, this brochure, together with further information elsewhere on this website describes for you the kind of Geography we teach throughout our undergraduate course.