Founded in 1928, the Department of Geography at Durham is one of the leading centres of geographical research and education in the world. We have been ranked in the top 10 for seven consecutive years in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2019). We are recurrently ranked in the top handful of programmes in the UK by various league tables. We are ranked 2nd in the Guardian University Guide 2019 and 3rd in the Complete University Guide 2019, and The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020. The most recent Research Excellence Framework found we produced the most world leading research publications and were top for overall research power in the discipline nationally.

Our ambition is to provide an outstanding education experience for each and every one of our undergraduate and postgraduate students, and for the Department to be a key research node in global networks, known for its agenda-setting research across the range of our specialisms. With over 60 academics, 40 researchers, 40 professional support, administrative and technical staff, 750 undergraduates and 130 postgraduates, we teach and research across the discipline. Our specialisms span from Antarctica, Greenland and the Arctic to Bangladesh, China and the emergent economies, whilst continuing to attend to the closer to home, the North east region in which we are located.

We are fortunate to enjoy a superb research and teaching environment in a wonderful City, with top class laboratory and IT facilities in a supportive and collegial atmosphere. At our core, our strength is drawn from all the people - staff and students - who together create and sustain the vibrant scholarly community that makes Durham Geography.

Professor Mike Bentley

Head of Department