Geography

Overview

Why study Geography?

Geographers are well placed to find solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our times, such as climate change, natural disasters, land degradation, overpopulation and rapid urban expansion. 

Why study Geography at Wits?

The Geography Division at Wits is rated in the top 100 institutions in the QS World University Rankings. Staff members contribute regularly to local and international publications and are members of the editorial boards of many prestigious journals. Our students benefit from the diverse expertise of our academic staff, all of whom are committed to research-based teaching. 

The field of Geography includes the subdisciplines of:

• Physical Geography – including climatology, geomorphology, hydrology and climate and environmental change.
• Human Geography – including economic geography, urban geography, and human-environment interactions.
• Geospatial Sciences – including Geographic Information Science, Remote Sensing and spatial statistics.
• Environmental Management – including the policy and practice, water and air pollution, and disaster risk management.

Career Opportunities

Some career possibilities following a Geography Honours degree include environmental impact assessment and management (if eligible for SACNASP accreditation), carbon monitoring and reporting, environmental consulting, remote sensing, geographic information systems, policy engagement, science communication, tourism management and environmental education.

Curriculum

BA Geography Honours Curriculum 2023

The BA Geography Honours degree comprises one compulsory course (the research project) and four elective courses. You may select any four of the elective courses on offer. You may replace one elective course with a course of equivalent credits from another programme.

Compulsory Course

GEOG4038A: Research project in Geography: Full Year, 40 credits

Elective Courses

GEOG4034A Water Challenges in South Africa, Block 1, 20 Credits (Prof Craig Sheridan)

‘Water Challenges in Southern Africa’ provides a broad introduction to the critically important field of water management and conservation with a focus on the key challenges associated with economic development, population growth, improved access to resources and global environmental change in a water scarce region. The course begins with a review of the hydrological cycle and the geographic setting of water resources and demand in Southern Africa. The major threats to water quality for human use are explored in-depth, with examples of pressures from agriculture (fertilizer contamination), industry/mining (such as acid mine drainage) and domestic sources (such as wastewater treatment plants). The course explores and compares applicable water policy in South Africa and internationally and the relevance of the legislation to the threats discussed earlier.  Practical experience of basic water quality analysis and monitoring methods is provided in the laboratory and the field (depending on numbers). The course will encourage students to explore the intersection of scientific, economic, social and political aspects of water science and management.

GEOG4041A Understanding Cities in Africa, Block 1, 20 Credits (Sarita Pillay)

This course focuses on development geography and institutional approaches to cities in Africa, urbanisation, poverty, urban agriculture, management and growth in rapidly growing cities, infrastructure delivery, informal economy, development, and urban environmental issues.

GEOG4015A Geographical Information Systems IV Block 2, 20 Credits (Dr Iqra Atif)

This course provides students with an advanced understanding of GIS through hands-on experience. The aim of the course is to develop the ability of the students to pre-process, analyse and critically assess a variety of datasets and apply the findings to a range of topics addressed by GIS professionals. The course will focus on in-depth knowledge of the sourcing of primary quantitative and qualitative data and their processing to create fundamental datasets for spatial analysis and problem solving. Students will learn to analyze surface terrain characteristics and derived properties (i.e. slope, hydrology, curvature), to create continuous surfaces from a set of points, analyze spatial patterns using geostatistical methods, and integrate GIS with remote sensing.

GEOG4047A Air Pollution and Health Impacts IV, Block 2, 20 Credits (Dr Raeesa Moolla)

This course focuses on the reasons why environmental health issues occur, in a global and southern African context, and the relationships of these health impacts to aspects of the human and physical environments that can trigger, amplify, or moderate health risks and impacts. The course addresses the most common types of environmental health risks globally and locally (through contamination and pollution in air; through biogenic and anthropogenic emissions and pollution), their causes and controls, and uses case studies to analyse their impacts on the human and physical environments, including aspects of vulnerability and adaptation. Throughout, there is emphasis on predictability, risk and mitigation of environmental health risk hazard impacts, including their implications for modelling, management and policy.

GEOG4045A Disaster Risk and Geohazards IV, Block 3, 20 Credits (Prof Jasper Knight)

This course focuses on the reasons why disasters occur in a global and southern African context, and the relationships of these disasters to aspects of the human and physical environments that can trigger, amplify, or moderate disaster risks and impacts. The course addresses the most common types of geohazards globally and locally (earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surges, river floods, droughts, soil erosion), their causes and controls, and uses case studies to analyse their impacts on the human and physical environments, including aspects of vulnerability and adaptation. Throughout, there is emphasis on predictability, risk and mitigation of hazard impacts, including their implications for modelling, management and policy.

GEOG4033A Advanced GIS and Remote Sensing IV, Block 3, 20 Credits (Dr Cletah Shoko)

This course provides students with an advanced understanding of the theory and practice of remote sensing. The aim of the course is to develop the ability of the students to acquire, pre-process, analyse and critically assess a variety of remotely sensed data in a wide variety of subject fields across the physical and social sciences such as monitoring vegetation health and productivity, mining, surface water, change detection and the mapping of contamination from sources such as acid mine drainage.

GEOG4039A Local and Regional Economic Development IV, Block 4, 20 Credits (Dr Alex Wafer)

This course provides a theoretical and methodological engagement with key themes and debates in Geographies of Development and Economic Geography. We will consider these themes and debates critically and geographically via a number of urgent South African development challenges and the responses to them in theory, policy and praxis. As a seminar-based course, seminar sessions will combine lectures and student-led discussions of the readings. Students will be expected to read, review and discuss assigned readings. Other assignments will develop wider skills for engaging critically with development-related materials and projects.

GEOG4044A Global Atmospheric Change IV, Block 4, 20 Credits (Prof Jennifer Fitchett)

The course explores Global Atmospheric Change through geologic time periods, from the Great Oxidation event, to the formation of the ozone layer and glacial-to interglacial cycles of carbon storage.  Contemporary atmospheric change is then explored, first in the context of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, greenhouse gas sequestration, and projections for climate change under an altered atmospheric composition. Changes in Oxygen, Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopes are explored as indicators of the changing contemporary atmosphere. This course will provide a detailed discussion into the contemporary debates regarding the Anthropocene: the timing of commencement, the impact of human activity on the atmosphere, and the absence of prior analogues of contemporary atmospheric and environmental conditions. 

Entry Requirements

• An undergraduate BSc or BA degree in complimentary fields relating to Geography, with a minimum weighted average of 60% and an average of 65% for geography courses is required for consideration for admission into the programme.

This is a highly competitive programme and therefore this minimum requirement allows your application to be considered, and does not guarantee admission.

University Application Process

University Fees and Funding

Click here to see the current average tuition fees. The Fees site also provides information about the payment of fees and closing dates for fees payments. Once you have applied you will be able to access the fees estimator on the student self-service portal.

For information about postgraduate funding opportunities, including the postgraduate merit award, click here. Please also check your School website for bursary opportunities. NRF bursaries: The National Research Foundation (NRF) offers a wide range of opportunities in terms of bursaries and fellowships to students pursuing postgraduate studies. External bursaries portal: The Bursaries South Africa website provides a comprehensive list of bursaries in South Africa.