Welcome to Royal Holloway Geography, one of the leading departments in the UK, remarkable for its combination of research excellence, inspirational teaching, and collaborations with partners beyond the university.
We pride ourselves on the commitment and energy that we put into our teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We have achieved high scores in every National Student Survey since 2011, reflecting our friendly, supportive learning environment. In the most recent survey, NSS 2024, 100% of our students agreed that staff are good at explaining things and always make subjects engaging, confirming the quality of teaching experience on our courses and reinforcing our place among the top institutions in our subject area. Overall we are ranked 2nd nationally for human geography and 4th for physical geography.
The Department has also been ranked as one of the UK’s leading research centres in Geography. The most recent UK Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) placed the Department fifth out of all 74 submissions, and 100% of our research impact was rated 4* and 3* internationally excellent. Our research not only shapes teaching and academic debates but is developed in collaboration with partners to deliver benefits to students in fields as diverse as conservation management, cultural heritage, development practice, foreign policy and climate change.
As Head of Department, I am very proud of our distinctive research and teaching profile. Our undergraduate students benefit from strong pastoral and tutorial support, and are bound together through an extensive fieldwork programme in Cyprus, London, Southern Spain and Sicily. Our large body of postgraduate students are central to the research culture of the Department, a constant source of energy and new ideas. Together, we are all part of a close-knit community where teaching, research and external collaboration come together to the benefit of all.
You can find out more about our staff and who we are here . Do feel free to get in touch. If you want to see more about what we are doing week by week, have a look at our Facebook page or Twitter account . If you are interested in studying with us, you can get more information about our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes here .
Simon Blockley
Head of the Department of Geography
Royal Holloway
