Geography and Environment

We offer a diverse portfolio of postgraduate teaching and research opportunities covering the full breadth of contemporary physical and human geography.

7th in the UK for Geography and Environmental Science Complete University Guide 2025
5th in the UK for Geography The Guardian University Guide 2025
8th in the UK for Geography and Environmental Sciences The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025
6th for student satisfaction in Geography and Environmental Science Complete University Guide 2025
100% of research impact rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ REF 2021
Bronze Carbon Literate Educator The Carbon Literacy Project

Geography and Environment at Loughborough

Geography and Environment, a department in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, is a dynamic and vibrant place to be a postgraduate student and we are proud of our reputation for creating a friendly and supportive environment. With over 30 academic staff, who are all leading international experts in their fields , we have an excellent international reputation for our research across different areas of physical and human geography.

Research degrees

In addition to our exciting range of taught programmes, there are also a variety of funded and unfunded opportunities to join us as a doctoral researcher. You can develop your own unique research proposal or browse our current list of PhD opportunities – either way, we’d love to hear from you.

Browse our PhD opportunities

Research and teaching

Our academic staff are driving forward intellectual agendas in physical and human geography, as well as helping to shape national and international policy. This expertise ensures that the knowledge you are getting throughout your programme is at the cutting-edge of scientific research and focused on some of the most important issues in society today.

The human geography research that we conduct is informing government policy on a range of issues, including energy and sustainable transitions; cities; and children, youth and families. Research into physical geography continues to influence climate adaptation, flood risk modelling, as well as hazard management and mitigation.

Becoming a postgraduate student within Geography and Environment provides you with the opportunity to become part of this innovative research community.

Facilities

We are located inside a state-of-the-art research and teaching facility, which houses all academic teaching and research staff along with a host of state-of-the-art laboratories including a river science laboratory, environmental change laboratory, geospatial laboratory, and several meteorological and hydrological field stations. The campus also has a 16-hectare research forest comprised of ancient and semi-natural woodland.

Accreditation

Carbon Literacy Bronze Educator logo

Career opportunities

Each programme includes training and support to develop the key transferable skills and attributes required to continue into careers across a range of industries and sectors. On completion of their programme, many postgraduates have continued into roles with government agencies, not for-profit organisations, the European Commission and the United Nations.