Research training

As a research student in Geography you will be provided with research training designed to provide you with the appropriate skills to complete a high quality research project within the prescribed time limits. The precise nature of the training you will receive depends whether you are conducting research in human or physical geography.

Human Geography

Research training in human geography is provided at two levels: within Geography, and at a Scottish level via a joint training programme provided by all Scottish geography departments.

At Geography level, there are modules covering statistical methods, qualitative methods, and theoretical debate and research skills in human geography. These are provided as part of the MSc courses in Social Research Methods (Population and Welfare) and Social Research Methods.

At a Scottish level, you will participate in an advanced research training course organised by all the geography departments in Scotland. Normally taking the format of an intensive four day residential course based at a Highland field centre, the topics covered are very much geared to the interests and concerns of the students attending the course. In past years these have included:

• Discourse analysis
• Reflexivity and positionality
• Ethics and morality in geographical research
• Quantitative methods and GIS
• Writing research papers

In addition, you have an opportunity to outline your own topic and discuss it with other postgraduate students as well as staff.

Physical Geography

Students registering for research in physical geography must attend the Faculty postgraduate training course (see above). In addition, Geography provides instruction in subject-specific skills (e.g. use of FORTRAN, GIS, or UNIX operating systems; laboratory analysis; environmental monitoring and automated data collection techniques). Further training beyond this general level is customised for each student according to the needs of their specific project.

New postgraduates are also encouraged to participate in the British Geomorphological Research Group's Training Course held annually at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor, a programme sponsored by NERC. During this course, postgraduates outline their research proposals and gain valuable feedback from their peers and senior staff attached to the course.

Each postgraduate is also required to make an oral presentation to Geography on their work at termly roundtable meetings of researchers. Postgraduates are also strongly encouraged to present papers at the Scottish Postgraduates' Conference, the BGRG Postgraduate Conference and at other meetings throughout their postgraduate careers.

Research resources

Geography has a range of resources which help support research. In physical geography this includes:

• Three automatic weather stations (Campbell Scientific)
• Data loggers and environmental sensors;
• Topographic survey equipment, including SOKKIA total station and Magellan GPS;
• Heucke thermal ice drill;
• Rock strength analysis equipment;
• Current meters (Ott)
• Hydrological software packages
• Extensive contemporary and historic hydrological time series data holdings
• An extensive map and air-photo collection.

In human geography, there is a range of computer software to support quantitative and qualitative analysis. Geography has acquired NVIVO software in 2005.