Subject overview

Specialist facilities

The University offers extensive computing facilities with a full range of data-processing and communications software. Office space is usually allocated to students taking research degrees. You will have full access to the University’s main Library and its online collection, and to the British Library of Development Studies, at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which is located on the Sussex campus.

Geography at Sussex has its own vehicles for field trips, specialist cartographic facilities and a well-equipped Physical Geography Laboratory.

Programmes

• PhD in Geography
• MPhil in Geography

All research students are required to complete an appropriate programme of research methods training. This may involve enrolling on the MSc in Social Research Methods – a stand-alone Masters degree – before proceeding to a PhD. This is known as a 1+3 degree. 

Students who have already completed a programme of research methods training can apply for the basic, three-year doctoral degree leading to a PhD.

Applications for research degrees are welcomed across any of our research clusters, each of which maintains a strong international reputation with world-leading research recognised in the 2008 RAE.

Geographers also provide interdisciplinary doctoral supervision in subject areas such as colonial and postcolonial studies, contemporary European studies, development studies and migration studies.

Coursework and supervision

Whether you start the three-year PhD or the 1+3 MSc/PhD degree, you will normally be required to complete some research methods training modules and possibly some specialist thematic modules drawn from the MSc degrees.

You will be allocated two academic supervisors with whom you work for the duration of your research degree. These are allocated according to their regional and thematic expertise, to provide a complementary ‘match’ with your research.

Recent thesis titles

An evaluation of GIS as a countryside management tool to inform the creation of a large-scale, near-forest habitat network in West Sussex

Black and white collaborative politics in South African Christian student movements 1907- 1978

Botanic gardens: ‘walled, stranded arks’ or environments for learning

Cities in motion: towards an understanding of the cinematic city

Ecotourism, institutions and livelihoods: a study of North Rupununi, Guyana

Food crop marketing and local economic development in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Gains, losses and changes: resettlement of Somali refugees in London and Toronto

Institutional needs for natural resource conservation in mountain areas

Media, imagination and migration: the role of Italian television in the Albanian migration to Italy

Pastoral-farmer conflict in the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands of north-eastern Nigeria

Rainfall variability and extremes over southern Africa

Representations of diversity and cultural participation: performances of multiculturalism in Bologna and Barcelona

Sediment transport in the Ouse-Newhaven Estuary

The global-local interplay and foreign direct investment in the European Union

The internationalisation of productive capital: Korean textile and clothing foreign direct investment in China

The migration and transition of Sierra Leonean refugee girls in England

The response of shingle beaches to storm events: a managed approach

Threats to coastal shingle biodiversity in the Rives Manche

Entry requirements

MPhil in Geography

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in any relevant social science, but applicants from other backgrounds may be considered. Applicants should submit an outline (two to three pages) of their research interests.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A in Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Additional admissions information

If you are a non-EEA student you must obtain clearance by the UK Government Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) for this degree. Please ensure you allow sufficient time for your university application to be considered and processed in time for you to apply for ATAS clearance and your Tier 4 visa.

PhD in Geography

UK entrance requirements

The normal requirement is a Masters degree in geography or a related subject, but applicants from other backgrounds may be considered. Applicants should submit an outline research proposal indicating the nature, ambitions and primary questions of the research project.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Additional admissions information

If you are a non-EEA student you must obtain clearance by the UK Government Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) for this degree. Please ensure you allow sufficient time for your university application to be considered and processed in time for you to apply for ATAS clearance and your Tier 4 visa.

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Related subject

• Evolution, behaviour and environment

Fees and funding

Fees

MPhil in Geography

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Geography

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Geography faculty enjoy reputations for world-leading academic research as well as policy-relevant studies on global socioeconomic and cultural transformations, and on climate change and geomorphology. Our research includes a number of projects funded by UK Research Councils such as the ESRC, AHRC and NERC, as well as major contributions to policy debates within the UK Government, EU, other international organisations and industry.

The research clusters in Geography are described below:

Climate
Economic geographies of globalisation and development
Geographies of migration
Geomorphology
Histories, cultures, networks

For more information, visit the Department of Geography.

Climate

In recent years, the spectre of anthropogenic climate change has thrust climate science into the centre of current political and public debates. Climate science is now directly informing policies on how we fuel our economy, which will affect all our lives. The Department contributes to this agenda through research to improve our understanding of fundamental climate processes within the earth system and climate impacts on our life-support systems.

We focus on climate change and the global water cycle, the role of mineral dust aerosols in the climate system, the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the climate system, and human dimensions of climate change.

Associated Geography faculty include:

Dr Mick Frogley Quaternary palaeoecology, and climatic history of lake basins.

Dr Dominic Kniveton Climate systems, and the hydrological cycle in Southern Africa.

Dr Julian Murton Permafrost, physical modelling, and Quaternary environments in Arctic Canada and UK.

Dr David Ockwell Transitions to a low-carbon economy; economics, politics and ecology of fire management in Cape York, Australia.

Professor Martin Todd The role of mineral dust in the climate system, the impact of climate change on hydrological and ecological systems.

Dr Yi Wang Climate change and earth systems science.

Economic geographies of globalisation and development

This research cluster focuses on global value chains, developing country industrialisation, industrial change and regional economic performance, the nature and impact of the emergence of China, and spatial price formation.

Research on regional inequality and regional economic performance has focused on regional economic performance in Europe, including governance and cohesion in an enlarged Europe. Current plans centre on an extension of this research to a comparative study of the EU and China. We are working on an ESRC-funded project in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on EU-China links and regional development in China.

Our research on global value chains involves close relationships with the research of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Globalisation Group. Scope exists for joint supervision with IDS. For more information, refer to the Development studies subject area.

Associated Geography faculty include:

Professor Mick Dunford Comparative regional and urban economic performance; inequality and social cohesion in Europe; and theories of regulation.

Geographies of migration

This cluster constitutes the core of the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, co-directed by Professor Richard Black and Professor Russell King since 1997. It is a unique venue for migration research in Britain, centred on creating a close-knit, interdisciplinary environment for faculty and graduate researchers alike, and linking research with its well-established MA in Migration Studies.

Highlights of this research effort have included a six-year ‘Development Research Centre’, funded by the Department for International Development, on the relationship between migration, globalisation and poverty; research on issues of integration, social cohesion and identity among migrants to the UK; and extensive research on migration issues in Europe. The group also supervises a number of doctoral students working on migration issues around the world.

The Centre is home to the internationally established Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, edited by Professor Russell King. Alongside Professor Richard Black’s co-editorship of the Journal of Refugee Studies, the world’s leading journal in the field of forced migration, this makes Sussex the main agenda-setting centre outside the US for journal-based empirical research on all aspects of migration.

Associated faculty include:

Professor Richard Black Migration, globalisation and poverty; social aspects of climate adaptation.

Dr Mike Collyer Migration policy, refugees and asylum, and Europe and North Africa.

Professor Russell King International migration in Europe, rural geography, the Mediterranean, and islands.

Dr Ben Rogaly Labour geographies; class and community; identity, place and belonging; temporary migrant workers; agriculture and food; poverty and social exclusion; UK; India.

Professor Ronald Skeldon Population migration in the developing world, especially Asia.

Dr Katie Walsh The intersection of migration, home and belonging; transnational spaces and identities; British expatriates; and Gulf region.

Geomorphology

This research cluster focuses on modelling and monitoring of sensitive earth-surface and atmospheric systems. The study of sensitive systems such as mountains, coasts, the atmosphere and the arctic is becoming critical to societies, as they adjust to the impacts of environmental change. Our research investigates sensitive systems by field monitoring, physical and numerical modelling, geotechnical analysis of sediments and rocks, and reconstruction of Quaternary environments.

Our expertise concerns:

• climate systems
• coastal and estuarine systems
• dryland systems
• permafrost and Arctic systems
• Quaternary palaeoenvironments
• slopes and landslides systems, and
• soil systems.

Key achievements

Recognition for the high quality of our research has led to several recent achievements:

• papers in Nature, Science, Geology and Geophysical Research Letters
• grants: more than £3.5 million (for example from the EU, INTERREG, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, NERC, Royal Society, Environment Agency)
• Beaches At Risk project – a showcase Franco-British project
• Chair of NERC Grant-awarding panel
• Chair of the British Society for Geomorphology
• associate editor of Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, and
• Dorothy Hodgkins Royal Society Research Fellowship to a former PhD student.

Associated faculty include:

Dr John Barlow Geospatial mapping and image analysis.

Professor Roger Moore Coastal instability and erosion, slopes and landslides, geohazard risk, subsea geomorphology.

Dr Cherith Moses Rock weathering; coastal processes; and karst landforms in the British Isles, the Mediterranean Basin and Australia.

Dr Julian Murton Permafrost, physical modelling, and Quaternary environments in Arctic Canada and UK.

Dr David Ockwell Transitions to a low-carbon economy; economics, politics and ecology of fire management in Cape York, Australia.

Dr David Robinson Rock weathering, coastal processes, soil erosion and conservation, and landform evolution.

Geomorphology at Sussex has close links with industry including collaboration through Halcrow Ltd, Royal Haskoning Ltd, Arup, Mott MacDonald and other consultants.

Histories, cultures, networks

This cluster centres around space and place in colonial and postcolonial worlds. Research is orchestrated around two interdisciplinary research centres: the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and the Centre for World Environmental History.

Associated faculty include:

Dr Grace Carswell Rural livelihoods in eastern Africa, population-environment interactions, and agricultural change under the influence of colonialism.

Professor Alan Lester The historical geographies of the 19th-century British Empire, and of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand; histories of humanitarianism and ‘race’.

Dr Simon Rycroft Radical urban cultures in the 1960s, the analysis of such cultures from a counter/cultural perspective showing how they engage with ‘nature’, 20th-century cosmologies.

Dr Katie Walsh The intersection of migration, home and belonging; transnational spaces and identities; British expatriates; and Gulf region.

Careers and perspectives

Our research degrees provide a strong intellectual grounding and sophisticated analytical skills appropriate to a wide variety of careers in the academic and policy fields, and in the private sector. Our graduates have also gone on to careers such as teaching and tutoring.

School and contacts