Don't take our word for it; past and present students' experiences of Geography at Loughborough:

Genni Butler

Graduated with a 1st class honours Geography BSc degree. She was featured in a special section of the Guardian Newspaper 'Rise: next moves for graduate professionals' (Saturday August 4th 2001) and was quoted there as saying 'Enter a field in which you have a natural interest'.

In her testimonal for this web site Genni says this about the ways in which her degree (and a year's work experience overseas) helped her with her current job:

"The opportunities at Loughborough helped me to offer both academic skills and practical work experience as I entered the jobs market, and I joined the Graduate Management Trainee Scheme of Anglian Water (now called awg) straight after graduating. I have since worked in a variety of roles from scientist to site manager across the wastewater, clean water and sustainable development areas of the business. An assignment to Beijing certainly called upon my Geography and travel experience. During my degree I worked for a year as a volunteer for the Department of Conservation in New Zealand, undertaking field and desk based work in addition to the research for my dissertation. I was awarded two prizes by the University to help fund this year."

James Faulconbridge

During my 3 years at Loughborough I won a travelling exhibition prize which helped partly fund research into Frankfurt, London and Paris as International Financial Centres. The many key skills I had been taught during my first 2 years at Loughborough proved to be invaluable and resulted in me being awarded the Richard & Margaret Lawton Prize and my dissertation being highly commended by the Urban Geography Research Group.

James continued to do a PhD in the Department and is now a Lecturer in Human Geography at Lancaster University.

Jeremy Honeywill

I'm now in my second year studying a Joint Honours degree in Geography and Sports Science. It's a wicked course. The good thing about Geography is that there are so many modules to choose from that you are bound to find something to suit your tastes. Loughborough itself is a great university. There are lots on offer and loads to get involved in. My experience so far has been brilliant - both Geography and University life.

Mark Edmondson

Having graduated with first class honours I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do. However upon investigation into the job market and masters courses, it soon became clear that my degree did not close any doors. Indeed all remained open due to the wide range of skills and experiences a degree in geography at Loughborough had put me through. I could fill in all the applications with ease as I had numerous examples of analytical and group working skills as well as report writing. In particular the interpersonal skills and team working that the course at Loughborough had were of value. It provided me with a broad base of skills and thus a good foundation for whichever career path I decided to take.

After completing my MSc in Environmental Management I am now on the Post Office Management Access Programme and am into a career in operations management. At present I manage over 400 staff and 9 managers in one of the UK’s largest and busiest mail centres.

Alistair Downs

Bonjour to all you prospective geography students. My name is Al and I’m now in my third year at Loughborough. Now I’m meant to be telling all you people about how great Loughborough is... but I’m simply going to talk about my life and experiences at Loughborough so far.

Although after a couple of minutes you may think that I’m going on a bit and that you’ve heard it all before please stick with me because at the end of the day selecting the right university is perhaps the biggest choice of your life!

I chose to do geography simply because it has always been my best and most enjoyable subject, and contrary to some of my mates' opinions I think that geography can be really interesting, due to the diverse range of topics that it covers. This is particularly the case at Loughborough where modules to suit both physical and human geographers are available in everything from more traditional areas of study like Climate and Globalization to Feminism and Geographies of the Streets!!! It is because of the diverse range of areas covered in geography that the subject is very popular with future employers as you have many different skills to offer.

Once I had chosen my course I had to select my uni. My criteria were, a campus university, no more than two hours from home, with a great night life and loads of sports taking place. I narrowed it down to Loughborough and Nottingham and after visiting them both I chose Loughborough.

I have had the best two years of my life at Loughborough, it just has sooo much to offer! Great social life, both within the Department, on campus and in the town centre, as well as great facilities for whatever you want to do, including a huge library which I’m afraid to say you will have to visit at some point.

My old school friends are all over the country at different unis, and I can honestly say that I am both proud and glad to be at Loughborough. No other university that I have stumbled across (after a few too many reef/lemon hooch) has the spirit, sports facilities, social life and overall “closeness” that Loughborough has to offer.

Oh and before I forget, another superb benefit of studying geography is that us hardworking students get to go on FIELD TRIPS!!! Last year I went on a human field course to Newcastle which was fantastic. Far too many stories to tell here! This year I went to Paris but could have chosen to go to Malta or the Swiss Alps!!! Lucky me!!!

At the end of the day I’m simply writing this to offer some advice about selecting the right course and uni. It doesn’t affect me whether you choose Loughborough or not, but the way I see it is that with the relaxed, friendly atmosphere of this department, the superb field trips offered, and above all the opportunity to enjoy life at the best campus university in the country, Loughborough to study Geography has to be your first choice!!