University home > Unit and programme catalogues in 2021/22 > Programme catalogue > Faculty of Arts > Centre for Innovation > Geography with Innovation (MSci) > Specification
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Programme code | 1INOV008U |
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Programme type | Single Honours |
Programme director(s) |
Ed Atkins (Geography contact)
Daniella Jenkins Programme Director (Innovation) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
School/department | Centre for Innovation |
Second School/department | School of Geographical Sciences |
Teaching institution | University of Bristol |
Awarding institution | University of Bristol |
Accrediting types: |
This programme has been accredited by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Accredited degree programmes contain a solid academic foundation in geographical knowledge and skills, and prepare graduates to address the needs of the world beyond higher education. The accreditation criteria require evidence that graduates from accredited programmes meet defined sets of learning outcomes, including subject knowledge, technical ability and transferable skills. (www.rgs.org) |
Relevant QAA subject benchmark groups | Geography (2019) (benchmark statement) |
Mode of study | Full Time |
Programme length | 4 years (full time) |
The digital and creative innovators of the 21st Century will bring together arts and humanities, design, science, engineering and enterprise to deliver new products, services and ways of working and living. This degree combines an in-depth subject specialism in Geography with interdisciplinary breadth, creative teamwork and entrepreneurial skills. Students undertaking this course will spend half their time studying Geography to gain a solid discipline strength whilst spending the other half of their time applying that knowledge to innovate and translate their ideas into plans for digital and creative enterprises, both social and commercial.
The programme aims to:
Students studying across the different specialisms on the innovation degrees come together as a cohort to learn and apply design and systems thinking for digital and creative innovation and put it into practice their working in transdisciplinary project teams. Students will learn from past and present success and failure case studies to help students think about future opportunities. The transdisciplinary project work in the second year works with real world clients where students develop empathy for the people they are designing for, explore solutions, iterating to develop an unexpected range of possibilities, and create prototypes to take back to the client to test with real customers or users. In their third year students explore innovative and disruptive ideas, potentially designing things that people don’t yet know they want by exploring the potential of new technologies to enable disruptive innovation, changing the way people live and work. Students will learn about different ways to generate ideas, ranging from brainstorming to crowd-sourcing, exploring project opportunities and creating prototypes to test with real people. Alongside this students will learn about different kinds of enterprise that can be used to take forward their ideas supported by mentors and coaches. The final year pulls together all the students have learnt to create an enterprise which may be an innovative digital and creative product, service or social innovation.
Successful completion of the course will allow students to move a wide range of careers, including setting up their own social or commercial enterprises, or continue onto an advanced postgraduate geography course. It will allow them to better understand the contested and spatially-structured world of their post-graduation experiences.
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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1. Integration of learning/teaching methods and assessment methods. 2. Diversity of learning/teaching methods to reflect varied nature of the subject matters of a geographical degree and of transferable skills provision. Use of formal lectured, seminars, tutorials, fieldwork, practical and laboratory classes, guided group and individual project work, extended essays and dissertations, internet search exercises. 3. Reduced dependence on formal lecturing approaches and greater use of individual and group exercises, seminars and discussions with successive sessions. 4. Incorporation of teaching methods with close staff-student contact: tutorials throughout programme; residential and other field work and staff-guided research projects. 5. Heavy dependence on hands-on experience through individual and group teaching exercises. 6. Incorporation of formal and informal pathways for evaluation of teaching by students, responses such evaluations by staff, and justification of consequent action/inaction. 7. Acquisition of knowledge and understanding for innovation, design and entrepreneurship occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials (12-15). 8. Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition (12 & 15). 9. Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship (12, 13 & 15). 10. Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback (12, 13 & 15). |
Methods of Assessment | |
1. Diversity of assessment methods to match learning/teaching methods. Use of unseen examinations, extended essay/project submissions, practical class reports, research dissertations, group and individual oral presentations, student-led seminars plus unit-specific assignments (eg food diaries, home climate projects, GIS analysis, creating, computing programmes, consultancy reports). 4. Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations (12-15) 5. Reflective and critical accounts of practical work and learning (12-15) 6. Iterative and agile practice based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges (12, 13 & 15) |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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1. Integration of learning/teaching methods and assessment methods 7. Acquisition of skills to innovate, design and create enterprises occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials (8-11). 8. Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition (8-11). 9. Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship (8-11). 10. Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback (8-11). |
Methods of Assessment | |
1. Diversity of assessment methods to match learning/teaching methods. Use of unseen examinations, extended essay/project submissions, practical class reports, research dissertations, group and individual oral presentations, student-led seminars plus unit-specific assignments (e.g. food diaries, home climate projects, GIS analysis, creating, computing programmes, consultancy reports). 3. Tutorial and some practical exercises assesses as satisfactory/unsatisfactory to encourage experimentation on part of students. 4. Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations (8-11) 5. Reflective and critical accounts of practical work and learning (8-11) 6. Iterative and agile practice based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges (8-11) |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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1. Integration of learning/teaching methods and assessment methods 7. Acquisition of skills to innovate, design and create enterprises occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials (12-18). 8. Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition (12-18). 9. Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship (12-18). 10. Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback (12-18). |
Methods of Assessment | |
1. Diversity of assessment methods to match learning/teaching methods. Use of unseen examinations, extended essay/project submissions, practical class reports, research dissertations, group and individual oral presentations, student-led seminars plus unit-specific assignments (eg food diaries, home climate projects, GIS analysis, creating, computing programmes, consultancy reports). 3. Tutorial and some practical exercises assesses as satisfactory/unsatisfactory to encourage experimentation on part of students. 4. Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations (12-18). 5. Reflective and critical accounts of practical work and learning (12-18). 6. Iterative and agile practice based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges (12-18). |
Statement of expectations from the students at each level of the programme as it/they develop year on year.
Level C/4 - Certificate |
By the end of their studies at level C, students are expected to be able to demonstrate sound knowledge of the fundamental principles of some of the core areas of geography and a level of competence in the relevant skills. The expectation is that their work may require substantial direction from members of staff. They will also have gained an understanding to how design and systems thinking can be applied to problems to innovate and unearth novel and creative solutions that may have been missed from undertaking a purely analytical approach whilst gaining experience in working in multidisciplinary teams. |
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Level I/5 - Intermediate |
At level I students are expected to be able to demonstrate that they have expanded the range and depth of their knowledge of geographical principles and their capacity to evaluate these principles using a variety of perspectives. They should also have developed a higher level of competence in the relevant skills. They are expected to be developing a capacity for self-directed learning. Student will be expected to critically reflect on past and present case studies and develop further their transdisciplinary working to real world digital and creative client problems. |
Level H/6 - Honours |
At level H students are expected to expand the breadth of their knowledge through their study of advanced subjects taught at current research cutting-edge. At this level students are expected to be able to demonstrate their capacity for self-directed study using the skills acquired and developed at levels one and two. Within the transdisciplinary group project the students will be expected to innovate for their own chosen problem by exploring the potential of new technologies to enable disruptive innovation to change the way people work and live. They will be supported by mentors and coaches to explore how their proposed solutions may be turned into an enterprise. |
Level M/7 - Masters |
At level M, students are expected to pull together all that they have learnt in prior years to create an enterprise; this may focus on an innovative digital and creative product or service, or a social innovation. Students will be required to assess the market, feasibility, IP, sustainability, finance and desirability of the proposition and create a proof of concept prototype to test with real world users. They will also be carrying out work at or informed by the forefront of geography. Students will have shown originality in the application of knowledge, and they will understand how the boundaries of knowledge are advanced through research. They will be able to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, and they will show originality in tackling and solving problems. They will have the qualities needed for employment in circumstances requiring sound judgement, personal responsibility and initiative, in complex and unpredictable professional environments. |
The intended learning outcome mapping document shows which mandatory units contribute towards each programme intended learning outcome.
For information on the admissions requirements for this programme please see details in the undergraduate prospectus at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/ or contact the relevant academic department.
UG Workload Statement
Success as an undergraduate student depends on you being able to make the transition to self-motivated, independent learning. Programmes are designed to assist you in this development, in many cases by starting with units in which timetabled teaching, such as lectures and practical classes, provides the foundations of knowledge and skills in a subject, moving on to individual research-based work. Over time you will be expected to take increasing responsibility for your own learning, guided by the feedback on your work that you will receive. At the heart of your studies at every level there must be regular and disciplined individual reading, reflection and writing and it is this skill of independent studies, above all others, that will serve you best when you leave the University.
Most programmes use credits and a 20 credit unit broadly equates to about 200 hours of student input. This includes all activities related to the teaching, learning and assessment of taught units.
A component of this is the time that you spend in class, in contact with the teaching staff, which includes activities such as lectures, laboratories, tutorials and fieldwork. Some of this activity may be online and could consist of activity that is synchronous (using real-time environments such as Blackboard Collaborate) or asynchronous (using tools such as tutor moderated discussion forums, blogs or wikis).
In some programmes there are field courses and/or placements that will take place in concentrated periods of time.
Outside scheduled activities you are expected to pursue your own independent learning to build your knowledge and understanding of the subjects you are studying. Such independent activities include, reviewing lecture material, reading textbooks, working on examples sheets, completing coursework, writing up laboratory notes, preparing for in-class progress tests and revising for examinations.
We recognise that many students undertake paid employment. To achieve a sensible balance between work and study, you are advised to undertake paid work for no more than 15 hours per week in term-time.
Professional Programmes
Many undergraduates in the Faculty of Health Sciences will be following the professional programmes of:
For these professional programmes, full time attendance is compulsory unless absence is formally approved. Academic activities are timetabled throughout the 5-day week and student workload is around 40 hours per week on average. Where possible, students in the early years are permitted Wednesday afternoons for sport and extra-curriculum activities. This may not be available in later years of professional programmes as when a student progresses through the curricula there is an increasing exposure to clinical and professional activities. Students in clinic or on placements may need to stay later than core times of 08.00 – 18.00 or even overnight to observe out-of-hours activities. This increasing exposure to clinical activities means that students on these professional programmes often have longer term dates than the University standard. Individual years within programmes are likely to vary in length (for example because of the timings of placements) and further information on this will be found in individual programme regulations. Another important point to note is that many of the assessments sit outside of the standard University examination timetable and are likely to be more frequent meaning that students will more oftentimes be engaged in revision activities and self-directed learning.
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty Assessment and Feedback Statement for Undergraduate Students. University of Bristol access only.
This integrated Masters programme has been designated as type III: Professional or Practice Masters in accordance with the QAA Degree Characteristics Statement. Please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes for further information on this type of programme.
All of the Geography units in Year 1 are must pass units. For the definition of must pass units please see the Glossary of Terms from Annex 1 to the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/esu/assessment/annex/glossary.html
Minimum requirement of pass mark 40% in each unit
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
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Key Concepts in Human and Physical Geography | GEOG10003 | 40 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Introduction to Quantitative Geography | GEOG10004 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Geographical History, Thought and Practices | GEOG10002 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Design and Systems Thinking for Innovation | INOV10001 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Transdisciplinary Group Project 1: Being Human | INOV10002 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Certificate of Higher Education | 120 |
This integrated Masters programme has been designated as type III: Professional or Practice Masters in accordance with the QAA Degree Characteristics Statement. Please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes for further information on this type of programme.
Students must achieve a year mark of 50 or more out of a hundred at the end of the second year to be able to progress on to the four year programme.
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
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Transdisciplinary Group Project 2: Solving Someone's Problem | INOV20002 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Independent Study Work Placement | INOV20003 | 10 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Spatial Modelling 2 | GEOG25010 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Select a further 80 credit points from the list below: | |||||
Fundamentals of Modern Glaciology | GEOG20004 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Floods, Flows and Erosion in River Basins | GEOG20002 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
The Earth System | GEOG20003 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
State, Economy and Society in Geographical Perspective | GEOG20005 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Philosophy, Social Theory and Geography | GEOG25110 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Research Methods in Physical Geography | GEOG20011 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography | GEOG20012 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Geographies of Nature and Environment | GEOG20015 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Oceans in a Changing World | GEOG20021 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Health Geography | GEOG20023 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Geographies of Colonialism and Coloniality | GEOG20024 | 20 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Students may only take ONE of Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography and Research Methods in Physical Geography, not both. Students who take one of these two units may also go on the related Geography field trip, on a non-credit-bearing basis, subject to timetabling and capacity constraints. Students who do not do a Methods unit may not attend a field trip. | |||||
Diploma of Higher Education | 130 |
This integrated Masters programme has been designated as type III: Professional or Practice Masters in accordance with the QAA Degree Characteristics Statement. Please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes for further information on this type of programme.
Please note that the BSc awarded to students who exit after the third year is not accredited.
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
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New Creative Ventures | INOV30006 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-2 | |
Making Ideas Happen | INOV30007 | 20 | Mandatory | D | TB-2 |
Ideation for Innovation | INOV30008 | 20 | Mandatory | A | TB-1 |
Select 60 cp from the following list but no more than 20cp from TB2 optional units: | |||||
Sea Level past, present and future | GEOG30008 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Geographies of the Bioeconomy | GEOG30030 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Food: Social, Animal, Ecological | GEOG30040 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Catchment Science: Hydrology, Ecology and Management | GEOG30013 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Ice and Ocean in the Global Carbon Cycle | GEOG30014 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Future Climates | GEOG30016 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Climate forensics: Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere | GEOG30033 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Migration and Development | GEOG30018 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Ethnicity, Class and Housing in the City | GEOG30020 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Spatial Modelling: Data Science for Geographers | GEOG30042 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Urban Geography - a focus on Africa | GEOG30022 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Geographies of Fashion and Style | GEOG30027 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Critical Political Ecologies of Extraction and Conservation | GEOG30029 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Rural Asia | GEOG30031 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Geographies of the Anthropocene | GEOG30036 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Environmental Risks and Disaster Risk Reduction | GEOG30041 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Geography with Innovation (BSc) | 120 |
This integrated Masters programme has been designated as type III: Professional or Practice Masters in accordance with the QAA Degree Characteristics Statement. Please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes for further information on this type of programme.
INOVM0026 is a must pass unit. For the definition of must pass units please see the Glossary of Terms from Annex 1 to the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/esu/assessment/annex/glossary.html
Minimum requirement of pass mark 50% in each unit
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
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In the Wild | INOVM0001 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-1 | |
Enterprise Case | INOVM0014 | 20 | Mandatory | A,D | TB-1 |
Transdisciplinary Project 4: Going Wild | INOVM0026 | 40 | Mandatory | A | TB-2 |
Select 40cp from the following list but no more than 20cp from each teaching block: | |||||
Theorizing Society and Space | GEOGM0001 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Earth System Modeling | GEOGM0030 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Sustainability, Risk and Resilience in the Urban Age | GEOGM0037 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Global Development and Environment: History, Theory, Practice | GEOGM0044 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Quantifying Climate Risks | GEOGM0045 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Mapping and Modelling Geographic Data in R | GEOGM0046 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Urban Analytics and City Science | GEOGM0055 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Environmental Modelling Applications | GEOGM0058 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Geographic Information Retrieval and Integration | GEOGM0068 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Decolonial Imaginaries for a Planetary Age | GEOGM0074 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Environmental Policy and Politics | GEOGM1409 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Geography with Innovation (MSci) | 120 |
Unit Pass Mark for Undergraduate Programmes:
For details on the weightings for classifying undergraduate degrees, please see the Agreed Weightings, by Faculty, to be applied for the Purposes of Calculating the Final Programme Mark and Degree Classification in Undergraduate Programmes.
For detailed rules on progression please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes and the relevant faculty handbook.
Please refer to the specific progression/award requirements for programmes with a preliminary year of study, the Gateway programmes and International Foundation programmes.
All undergraduate degree programmes allow the opportunity for a student to exit from a programme with a Diploma or Certificate of Higher Education.
Integrated Master's degrees may also allow the opportunity for a student to exit from the programme with an equivalent Bachelor's degree where a student has achieved 360 credit points, of which 90 must be at level 6, and has successfully met any additional criteria as described in the programme specification.
The opportunities for a student to exit from one of the professional programmes in Veterinary Science, Medicine, and Dentistry with an Award is outlined in the relevant Programme Regulations (which are available as an annex in the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes).
An Ordinary degree can be awarded if a student has successfully completed at least 300 credits with a minimum of 60 credits at Level 6.
The pass mark for the professional programmes in Veterinary Science, Medicine and Dentistry is 50 out of 100. The classification of a degree in the professional programmes in Veterinary Science, Medicine, and Dentistry is provided in the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
The alternative classified honours degree of Arts (Geography with Innovation) (MSci) may be awarded on this programme. For further details please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes
Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if he/she takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided.
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