Facilities and teaching

We employ a diverse range of teaching methods to ensure you are challenged and engaged at all stages of your degree.

Teaching

• Each year group has their own study area, readily accessible and equipped with specimens
• Transferable skills teaching, including computing and maths, are integrated into course modules
• Supervised practical classes are closely integrated with lectures
• Students are actively encouraged and guided into independent study
• Independent and teamwork projects are integral parts of modules in every year, with the proportion of independent project work increasing as you progress through your degree
• Diverse assessment methods include coursework, fieldwork, independent reports/projects, seminars, oral and poster presentations and computer-based tests, as well as formal examinations
• Each student has a personal tutor who provides pastoral and academic support

Student feedback

You will be provided with non-assessed feedback on every module to help you improve and prepare for assessed work.

• Student questionnaires allow you to give direct feedback on modules
• An active Student-Staff Committee allows you to raise any issues relating to your studies and to suggest and discuss course developments

Facilities

You will have access to our student resource room as well as state-of-the-art lecture theatres and practical laboratories.

• Excellent IT facilities, including open-access computer rooms in the School
• Extensive, award-winning collections of more than 250,000 rocks, minerals and fossils
• High-quality analytical facilities are available as appropriate for your undergraduate project
• Superbly-supported fieldwork programme, in terms of both equipment and technical support
• Undergraduates may carry out research with many of our contacts. In recent years this has included analysing data from the International Ocean Discovery Program, working with staff from other facilities, including the British Geological Survey, and with companies, such as Carl Zeiss Microscopy

Accredited degrees

All our current geology degrees with the exception of Physical Geography with Geology were granted accredited status by the Geological Society in 1999 and re-accredited in 2005, 2011 and 2017. The Geological Society of London is the professional society for geologists in the UK.