Master in Geography : General

The time is gone when studying geography would most probably lead to teaching. The range of career paths followed by geographers is now very broad: urban planning agencies, public administrations, geographic information systems companies, various associations, project managers in the field of tourism, transport, environment, real estate,... The programme in "Développement Territorial" can also lead to a future Ph.D. trajectory.

The programme "Didactique" is specifically focused on the practice of teaching geography.

"4CITIES" leads to the following kind of occupations : Research and teaching on issues of urbanity and urbanism, Urban policy advise, Urban project management, Urban planning and design, etc.

- professionals of urban planning, regional development and environmental management

- geographic information system designers and spatial data analysts

- project managers in the field of tourism, transport, environment, real estate, ...

- associative workers

- researchers

- teacher

- etc.

A specific page of the Human Geography Laboratory website lists institutions that regularly recruit geographers - see http://labogeo.ulb.ac.be/labogeo/apres.html. See also http://labogeo.ulb.ac.be/labogeo/emplois.html for job offers.

"4CITIES" leads to the following kind of occupations : Research and teaching on issues of urbanity and urbanism, Urban policy advise, Urban project management, Urban planning and design, etc.

The Master in Geography offers an unique formation covering theories and models of socio-spatial configurations as well as techniques of spatial analysis (field enquiries, semi-structures interviews, statistical methods, i.a.) and techniques production and representation of spatial information (mapping, treatment of remote sensing data, i.a.). Those theories, models and techniques are discussed and implemented as regards territorial issues , at various scales - neighbourhood, city, region, country, continent, world-system.

The Master in Geography provides an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to spatial issues, combining various approaches in a systematic way and a critical perspective. Special attention is also paid to social and political dimensions of territorial issues.

The programme focuses on the whole chain of production, management, analysis and dissemination of original geographic data. Lectures, seminars and exercises make use of free software, henceenabling much use beyond the university.

The "Didactique" programme specifically trains future teachers of secondary education in order to prepare them to arouse students' interest vis-à-vis the importance of geographic issues for understanding the world and practicing democratic citizenship.

The 4Cities programme adds an European perspective to the field of Urban Studies: it wants to break up and to open the national perspective on urban problems. The growing importance of globalisation and the shift towards a world of flows calls for a new approach in important fields of urban policy like culture, economy, planning... The strength of this master programme results from the integration of analytical skills typical for the (social-)sciences and the more design oriented skills of planning and architecture. The need for interdisciplinary knowledge and skills as opposed to the more narrowly defined academic disciplines is strong.

Please see www.4Cities.eu for a full description of the programme's mission statement, format and content.

The Master in Geography includes 3 distinct programmes, namely "Développement territorial", "Didactique" and "Urban Studies". The first two ones are fully taught and managed in French only, whereas the third one is fully taught and organised in English only.

- "Développement territorial" is a full 2-year MA programme in human geography, covering the fields of social geography, urban geography, political geography, economic geography, cultural geography, geo-demography, urban planning.

- "Didactique" is a full 2-year MA programme sharing most of its courses with "Développement territorial", but including specific teaching and seminars dedicated to prepare students to the practise of teaching geography at secondary school.

- "Urban Studies" is a full 2-year MA programme developing a multidisciplinary an international approach to the study of urban issues. Courses and seminars taught at ULB are part of an Erasmus-Mundus programme called "4Cities - Unica Euromaster in Urban Studies". Please see www.4cities.eu for full details.

Specific conditions apply to access 4Cities. Please see www.4Cities.eu for further information on how and when to apply.

The Master in Geography takes advantage of the location of the ULB in Brussels, bringing students to reflect on current issues of the city, particularly with regard the development of 'strategic sites'. In recent years, students have worked notably on the future developement of the Heysel area, the Delta area, or the Canal area).

Lectures and seminars taks also advantages of the long experience of contractual research done by staff members for external (public or private) institutions.

The relatively small size of the groups of students facilitates interactions with teachers, assistants but also with researchers from the Institute of Environmental Management and Land Planning (IGEAT).

For the realization of the MA thesis, students receive special coaching seminar. The process starts in the second semester of the first year of the Master and is structured as a series of stages : problem setting, research question, state of the art, method, empirical developments, interpretation of results.

A computer room and a mapothèque are available to students.