Geography News Winter 2009

Come and see us at stand AS433 at the OS Outdoors Show 27-29 March at the NEC Birmingham.

People visiting our website qualify for discounted tickets.
Take advantage of the pre-show ticket discount of 2 tickets for £22 – saving £12 on door prices!
All you need to do is to quote this unique ticket code EXB41 when booking your tickets online www.outdoorsshowextra.co.uk or via the hotline 0844 415 4418.

Allan Watson of the Geography Department travelled to Abu Dhabi in January 2009, as part of a small team of international academics, to deliver a two-day workshop to a large number of prestigious guests from the city’s government, business and educational organisations. The workshop, entitled “New ways of thinking about Abu Dhabi as an emerging global city” was commissioned by the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development, and delivered by academics from the Globalisation and World Cities Research Network. The aim was to foster new ways of thinking about the rapid development of the city and its position within global economic, cultural, and social networks. Themes covered included knowledges and networks, transport and logistics, governance, cultural and creative economy, education, and sustainability.

Three Geography tutors from The University of Madras in Chennai, India visitied the Geography Department at Staffordshire during 24th - 28th November 2008 for a staff development workshop. A further staff development workshop for University of Madras tutors was held at Staffordshire in January 2009 and staff from Staffordshire Geography department plan to visit the University of Madras in September 2009.

A partnership between the Geography Departments at Staffordshire University and The University of Madras was established in 2004 to support the delivery of the Staffordshire University MA in Sustainable Development within India. A key component of this partnership is collaboration between the two Geography departments to develop new e-learning modules and joint awards that can be added to the portfolio of environment and sustainability awards already offered by Staffordshire University and delivered by distributed learning. During the forthcoming workshop Prof. T. V. Kumaran (Head of Geography at the University of Madras) and Drs. V. M. Suresh and M. Sakthivel will work with staff from Staffordshire Geography department to progress development of these new modules and awards.

The first cohort of Geography fast-track students completed their Geography award in September 2008 and graduated at the University fast-track graduation ceremony on Thursday 4th December 2008. Three of them graduated with a BA (Hons) in Geography and one with BSc (Hons) in Geography.

The Faculty of Sciences Geography department is ranked among some of the highest performing modern universities in the sector, ranking in the top 15 of all 65 UK Geography departments in the "Guardian University Guide 2009".